Chey’s Lounge

The short rib ragu is the primary reason this dish is a labor of love. I honestly haven’t figured out a great way to get rid of all the fat. This most recent iteration involved me making the sauce the night before. I did so in hopes of allowing the fat to solidify on top, making it super easy to just take out. The thing is, it didn’t work as expected at all. There could be a few reasons for it, but to make a medium length story short, I think I should’ve added more water to allow the fat the opportunity to actually rise atop it. Also, I didn’t finish cooking until like midnight and it needed so much time to cool down before I could actually get it into the fridge, so it probably could’ve used some more time to settle, too. Needless to say, it was a failed attempt, but I will be attempting it again one day. I’m not giving up on the technique yet because it has to be the most efficient way to deal with it when it comes to saving time and reducing the amount of unnecessary waste caused by a technique like skimming it off the top. You can’t just leave it in there and it will inevitably happen with this cut, every blessing has its curse. Let’s get on with this and tell you some more, from the start. 

Even though I was somewhat proactive and cooked the ragu the night before Lasagna Assembly, I started so late and recommend not doing that. The short ribs need time for the like fat and connective tissue to really break down and the meat to fall apart. The dish literally doesn’t work if the meat isn’t basically shredded on its own accord. You need to cook it until it happens and if it doesn’t happen idek what you could’ve done. 

Without further adieu, here’s what I do for the ragu. I started with a few English cut short ribs. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Despite the high amount of fat, they do benefit from a little oil in the pan to begin the browning process. I decided to fry up a little bit of diced pancetta in the pot, scooped out the pieces, and then left the rendered fat in there to cook the short ribs in. I try to brown all 6 sides of each, but who knows if I do. Once they’re sufficiently browned. I pour out and reserve the fat that has come out so far. 

I do use some of that fat for the next step, call it mirepoix; soffritto; diced celery, carrot and onion; whatever. That’s next and into some of the reserved fat it goes. I really let it sweat a little while for this dish. Eventually, I do add crushed garlic. It doesn’t need to sweat as long and I find her more temperamental, so I add her into the pot well into the sweat. She catches up quick. I do use a little salt and pepper at this point, idk if it’s a good idea, I just feel like it can’t hurt to season in layers. I eventually add some tomato paste and stir it all up. I try to way for some browning of the tomato paste on the sides before adding some red wine to give me something to deglaze. Once that simmers down and reduces by let’s say half, then I’ll add beef stock and crushed tomatoes. As you know unless you didn’t read the first paragraphs right up there, we’re in for a long simmer, so we may as well add some aromatics. Maybe some other stuff. For the fresher ingredients of, I use a few sprigs of thyme, rosemary, sage, and a bay leaf or two. I tie that up all up into a bundle and then tie the bundle to a rind of parmigiana and a cinnamon stick. I stick that in there and sprinkle in some other stuff like allspice, ground nutmeg, and a little extra ground cinnamon. Of course more salt and pepper. Maybe some crushed red pepper flakes would be nice too actually. Anyway, let that cook for a while, at least until the meat starts falling apart. I personally like to keep the bones in there. That’s really it for the sauce, let’s move on. 

Next thing on the list is usually making the lasagna sheets. I guess you don’t need to, but I basically only use my own pasta for lasagna. I use egg yolk, some whites, olive oil, salt, and of course flour. I usually bring the dough together and let it sit for at least 20 minutes or so before working on it one more time and letting it sit a little again. I’ve found that it never hurts to use extra flour when actually making the pasta sheets. I use one of those little machines. The size options are it are 0-9 and I usually go up to 7 for the sheets. I’m still not an expert in storing them after boiling and then putting in cold water. I tried hanging them on the same rack I use pre-boiling but they were slippin’ and slidin’ all over LOL. Not a great idea, but it worked well enough for a sufficient amount to remain in tact for Lasagna Assembly time. 

The bechemel isn’t a classic bechemel. I add 2 non-traditional ingredients. I literally fucked something up this time LOL. Ugh. The 2 extra ingredients in chey-chemel are parmigiana and ground white pepper. I was trying to be fancy and use my unopened white peppercorn grinder. Tell me why I thought it was a good idea to try to use it over the pot of bechemel and just opened it and half the peppercorns fall out. Half of those that did fall out fell directly into the sauce. I decided it was impossible to scoop and I had to strain them out. It literally smelled like hay for some reason? I didn’t actually grind any in there because I was nervous it’d be too spicy but I actually could’ve used a little more in the end lol. I didn’t add it because I was TRAUMATIZED. But yeah, the traditional aspects of it are melting butter and then adding basically equal parts flour and cook the flour. Once that’s done, you have to add warm/hot milk. It’s not that big of a deal if it’s cold, but it’s literally so much better if it isn’t. You do you if that’s what you prefer, I believe in my heart you can whisk through any potential clumping of you don’t want to warm it up. Once you add all the milk (easier to do a bit at a time), you’ll add nutmeg. If you’re like me when I don’t mess up, you’ll also add ground white pepper and some grated parmigiana around now too. Then just whisk until it’s a little less viscous than desired. It’ll thicken up. Heh. 

We’re basically ready for Assembly time. I start with bechemel on the bottom before placing down a layer of pasta sheets. I then add another layer of bechemel, a layer of ragu, some basil leaves, and then a some dollops of a little ricotta mix. The ricotta mix is a package of ricotta with fresh chopped parsley, grated parmigiana, and for the first time I also grated low moisture mozzarella. I do a few layers of that and add some slices of the same mozzarella (I want fresh Mozz to work and melt well, but it kinda doesn’t really). I also grated some of the mozzarella on top and added a little parm too bc I was already grating something on there. I put something on top to cover it then throw it in the oven. After a little while I take the cover off and broil it to get the right look and feel for the cheese. And there we are. Let it sit a little while after taking it out before cutting into it. Top it off with a little more basil. Maybe some extra sauce or grated cheese. A little parsley if you want to go overboard. It’s my little labor of love and if you read this I appreciate you.