The February layer cake

To give a twist to a typical Carnival dish, I made a special layer cake, my personal interpretation of the classic Neapolitan lasagne: it isn’t a light recipe, but since today is a holiday we can give ourselves a few extra calories!

The best thing about a dish like this is that you can put in whatever you want: “The more you put, the more you get”, as we say in Campania. Therefore, I’ll give you the list of the ingredients for the filling that I chose, but I won’t tell you the quantities so that you’ll be able to change them according to your taste:

Sheep’s milk ricotta

Neapolitan salami

Cow’s milk mozzarella

Parmesan

Pork, eggs, bread and parmesan for the meatballs

Tomato sauce

Béchamel sauce

I formed about 25 small meatballs that I put on a baking sheet lined with oven paper and I cooked them for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime I dissolved the ricotta in a few tablespoons of sauce, then I added the chopped mozzarella and salami, parmesan and finally the meatballs. I added the béchamel to the sauce and I poured a part of it over the bottom of a cake tin with a hole in the middle (see photo). At this point I cut the pasta for lasagne into vertical strips and I arranged them in the mould, taking care not to leave any spaces. I poured in another layer of filling, then I made another layer of pasta and so on.

I covered the top layer with the remaining sauce and I cooked the “cake” in the oven for about 20/25 minutes.

Before removing it from the mould I suggest you let it cool down a bit otherwise you’ll lose the special shape of this unusual lasagne.

English version by Maurizio de Santis

Special thanks to David Strong

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