Crepe Lasagna

This lasagna is the light and will literally melt in your mouth. Paper thin crepes are layered with a rich meat sauce and mozzarella to create the most unique lasagna you have ever tasted!

Course Main Course

Keyword crepe lasagna, meat sauce, lasagna, Italian cooking

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 2

Servings -8 servings

Calories 667kcal

Author Nadia Fazio

Ingredients

For the crepes:

4 eggs
2 tablespoons butter melted
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups combination milk and water (I usually use half of each)

For the meat sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
2 cloves garlic
500 grams ground meat trio beef, veal, pork (about 1 pound)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 700ml jar tomato passata (puréed tomatoes)
1 cup water
salt and pepper to taste

For assembling:

2 1/2 cups mozzarella shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese grated

Instructions

For the crepe batter:

Begin by preparing the crepe batter. In a large bowl combine the eggs, butter and salt. Whisk until combined and add the flour. At this point, it may be easier to use an immersion blender if you have one. Add the milk and water and combine well until there are no lumps. Let rest for half an hour.

For the meat sauce:

Meanwhile, prepare the meat sauce. Cut the onion, carrot, celery and garlic in large chunks and, using your food processor, process until finely chopped but not puréed. Alternately, chop finely with a knife. The sauce will be smooth and free of large chunks of vegetables. Heat the oil on medium high heat in a large dutch oven and sauté the vegetable mixture until the water has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add the ground meat and cook, stirring to break up any large chunks, until it is no longer pink. Stir in the tomato paste. Add the tomato purée and rinse the bottle with a cup of water and add to the sauce. Cook partially covered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.

Make the crepes:

Preheat a 11-inch non stick pan over medium heat. Grease lightly with vegetable oil or melted butter. When the pan is hot, scoop 1 ladle full of batter onto the pan. Swirl the batter to completely cover the pan. Then tilt over the bowl of batter to allow the excess batter to drip away.
Cook for about 1 minute until the edges start to detach from the side of the pan and the crepe begins to bubble in the centre. Lift the crepe from the sides of the pan and flip it over. Cook for 30 more seconds. Place in a plate and cover with a tea towel. Continue until all the batter is used.

To assemble:

To assemble the lasagna: Preheat oven to 350°. Ladle 1 scoop of meat sauce on the bottom of a 12 X 10 inch lasagna pan. Place a crepe on the sauce and evenly cover with 1 ladle of meat sauce.
Cover with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Repeat with 7 more crepes, mozzarella and parmesan. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cheese is bubbling. If the top begins to brown, cover with aluminum foil until done.

Notes

I used an 11-inch non-stick pan for my crepes which fit well in a 10 x 12-inch lasagna pan. This helped me avoid cutting and pasting crepes. But if you're using a different sized pan and need to do a little cutting and pasting, it's no problem at all. Once you've covered the crepes with sauce and cheese you will never be able to detect the pieces of crepes you've used to patch corners.
You can then use the crepes right away or wrap them in plastic wrap, once cooled. Place them in the refrigerator until you're ready to assemble your dish.
The lasagna can be assembled in stages. Make the crepes one day; the sauce the next day and assemble the day after that.
The recipe also makes 10-12 crepes and I used 8 for my lasagna. My children readily gobbled up the extra crepes filled with Nutella or ricotta.
Unlike most commercial lasagnas, this one is not drowning in sauce. I was impressed as I watched my aunt lightly coat each crepe with sauce, spreading it with her fingers. The same goes for the mozzarella. You won't find a 1 inch thick coating of cheese here. But if you're partial to tons of mozzarella, just go for it and add as much as you'd like!
You can freeze the lasagna before baking it. Defrost in the refrigerator over night the day before you want to bake it. It will take a little longer to bake. To check if the interior is hot, place the blade of a knife in the center of the lasagna, if it comes out hot the lasagna is ready.

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