Recipes
Vincisgrassi: Marche-style baked lasagna
Vincisgrassi are baked lasagna filled with mixed meat ragout: a tasty first course typical of the Marche culture.
Today we are cooking vincisgrassi, a typical recipe from Macerata which is still considered one of the most important in the Marche tradition . This dish consists of a sort of layered lasagna, composed of egg pasta and ragù made from different meats. There are many variations: some, for example, use cockscombs, others chicken giblets, still others include bechamel in the preparation.
We offer you a recipe for vincisgrassi with a mixed ragù of beef, pork and chicken giblets, flavored with bacon with which we will fill the lasagna sheets. Try this dish with your family or with guests for dinner: the result will surprise you. Let's go and see how Marche lasagna is made!
Ingredients
For the vincisgrassi
- Lasagne sheet – 500 g
- Tomato puree – 500 g
- Minced pork – 200 g
- Minced beef – 200 g
- Chicken giblets – 200 g
- Bacon (in a slice) – 100 g
- Onions – 1
- Carrot – 1
- Celery – 1 stalk
- White wine – 1 glass
- Extra virgin olive oil – 4 tablespoons
- Grated parmesan – 100 g
- Salt – to taste
- Pepper – to taste
Preparation
How to prepare the Marche vingisgrassi recipe
To begin, let's prepare the sauce with which we will fill the sheets of egg pasta. In a pan, fry the finely chopped celery , carrot and onions with two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil .
Sauté the vegetables well, then add the minced beef and pork and also the bacon cut into cubes or strips. For a more rustic result the meat should be cut with a knife. Add the salt and pepper and season the meat well. Pour in a glass of white cooking wine and finally add the tomato puree . Cook for an hour.
Add the chopped chicken offal to the knife and continue cooking for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the sauce from sticking to the edges of the pan.
When the ragù is ready, take a baking dish and roll out a sheet of egg pasta . Stuff with sauce and grated cheese and repeat the operation at least 7 times. Cover the last layer with a few spoonfuls of ragù and plenty of grated cheese and cook in a preheated oven at 180°C for 30-40 minutes .
There is no single way to make this typical Marche dish. For example, there are those who add bechamel between the layers, just as you can see in this video, making the dish more similar to classic lasagna.
Conservation
The vincisgrassi can be prepared a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Once cooked they will keep for a couple of days but are also suitable for freezing.
Origin and history
Unraveling the origins of vincisgrassi is a difficult undertaking and establishing the exact date of birth of the dish is not possible. The hypothesis that has long been the most accepted traces the birth of this lasagne to the macaronic Italianization of the name of the Austrian general Windisch Graetz who in 1799 defended the city of Ancona from Napoleon's troops.
In more recent times, however, the general's presence in the city was moved 50 years later. In all cases, the first appearance of the term attributable to vincisgrassi dates back to 1779 in Antonio Nebbia's cookbook "Il cuoco marchegiano" . Here is the recipe for the eggs in Princisgras and then, for the first time, the recipe for the "Sauce for the Princisgras" and the "Lasagne di Princisgras" .
In this sense the term would derive from the phrase fatty dish for the little prince , in reference to the Prince of Wales to whom the eggs were dedicated, an 18th century Umbrian recipe. In short, between assonances of names and revisitations, there seem to be inextricable knots. In reference to the Nebbia recipe, we can say that the first ancestor of lasagna included very different ingredients, including ham and truffle .
As time passed these were replaced by ingredients present in the homes of peasant families. Hence the introduction of chicken giblets and the use of farmyard animal meat . The addition of beef is an even more recent twist, being easier to find.
In any case, vincisgrassi alla maceratese is a dish that has never ceased to conquer the palates of tasters including Orson Wells . The recipe recently obtained the Traditional Specialty Guaranteed seal and in 19 trattorias and taverns in the region it is possible to taste this dish prepared in the traditional way.
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Bolognese lasagna
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