The Art of Creating 100 Layer Lasagna: A Culinary Experiment Gone Right

As any self-respecting food enthusiast knows, making lasagna is no easy feat. It requires patience, skill, and a bit of creativity. But what happens when you take that classic dish to the next level by stacking layer upon layer of pasta, sauce, cheese, and meat? Enter the 100 layer lasagna, a culinary experiment that was attempted in this kitchen with mixed results.

The journey began with a trip to the grocery store, where our chef set out to gather all the necessary ingredients for the ultimate lasagna. The goal was ambitious: to create a dish that would rival those found in high-end restaurants across the world. With a careful eye on the shopping list, the pantry and fridge were stocked with an array of pasta shapes, meats, cheeses, and sauces. And so, with all the necessary ingredients at hand, it was time to start building.

The first layer began innocently enough – a simple mixture of ground beef and tomato sauce simmering away in a pan. As the flavors melded together, the chef's attention turned to the pasta. A large batch of lasagna noodles was cooked al dente, then set aside to await their turn in the spotlight. Next came the cheese, a generous sprinkling of Pecorino Romano adding a salty kick to the proceedings. The cheese was layered on top of the sauce, followed by a second layer of pasta and another helping of sauce.

And so the process continued, with each layer carefully crafted to complement the one below it. Meatballs were added for extra flavor, along with layers of ricotta and mozzarella cheese. The final result was nothing short of astonishing – a towering structure of pasta, sauce, cheese, and meat that seemed to defy gravity itself.

But as the lasagna neared completion, a critical mistake was made. The convection setting on the oven was left on for too long, resulting in a burnt top layer that would ultimately render the dish inedible. "Probably should have turned the convection off at some point," our chef reflected wistfully.

In a surprising twist of fate, Andrew stepped in to salvage the situation, carefully removing the burnt top layer and covering the remaining lasagna with parchment paper. The kitchen was then treated to a dramatic reveal as the finished dish emerged from the oven – a majestic, towering structure that seemed almost too good to be true.

Andrew would go on to grill the lasagna outdoors, where it would naturally cool down and develop a crispy exterior. "That seems to be the best way to naturally refrigerate this thing," our chef noted, as the kitchen staff gathered around to marvel at the finished product. The final touch came in the form of a sprinkle of parsley and a generous helping of grated cheese – the perfect finishing touches for what was now an almost-too-beautiful-to-eat masterpiece.

And so, with all the trimmings carefully set aside, it was time to slice into the behemoth lasagna and reveal its secrets. A perfectly cooked portion was carefully extracted, and our chef took a moment to appreciate the layers that lay beneath. "Really nice color on the outside there," they noted proudly, as the kitchen staff gathered around to admire their handiwork.

The finished product was nothing short of breathtaking – a towering slice of lasagna that seemed to defy gravity itself. The cheese had caramelized to perfection, and the pasta had absorbed just the right amount of sauce. It was almost too beautiful to eat... almost.

But the real question on everyone's mind was: how did it taste? With an extra helping of sauce and a generous sprinkling of grated cheese, our chef took their first bite – and smiled in satisfaction. "You kind of need that extra sauce for the moisture and extra cheese for the saltines to make this little brick of seared lasagna even tastier," they noted.

As the kitchen staff dug in, it became clear that every layer had come together to create something truly special. The flavors were rich and complex, with each bite revealing a new depth of flavor. It was a true triumph of culinary engineering – a 100-layer lasagna that would make even the most seasoned chefs take notice.

And so, as the kitchen staff sat around devouring their slices of lasagna, it became clear that all their hard work had paid off in spades. The dish may have been ambitious, but it was also deliciously successful. As our chef looked on at their team, they couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment – after all, who needs a 100-layer lasagna when you can create something truly special with just a little bit of creativity and hard work?

In the end, every last scrap of lasagna was made use of, with trimmings carefully set aside to be transformed into snacks for the kitchen staff. And so, as they sat around their table enjoying their well-deserved break, it became clear that this 100-layer lasagna had been a true success story – one that would go down in the annals of culinary history as a testament to the power of creativity and hard work.

The final word on the matter came from our chef, who summed up the experience perfectly: "It's not just about the food – it's about the journey." And what a journey it had been.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This episodeis sponsored by Squarespace.I used Squarespace to buildboth Basics with Babishand BingingWithBabish.com.On the sites, you'll findrecipes, equipment lists,other news and updates,all beautifully designedif I do say so myself,get 10% off your first Squarespace orderby visiting squarespace.com/babish.- Moment of truth is here.We're gonna flip thisbaby and see what happens.I love it.That's a baby.Look at all the layers of themeat, the cheese, you know,the bechamel just barely visible,but that makes it creamy and delicious.- All it is a littlebit of the bolognese sauce.A slab will be of the lasagnathat's been nicely seared off.- Oh my god, that's so beautiful.- Hello there.Welcome back to anotherepisode of Anything With Alvinwhere I attempt to createa fun food from the videosthat I like to watch in my spare time.This episode, we're goingfor a 100 layer lasagna,which is a dish thatalthough seems crazy,is served by a coupleof restaurants around the world.This one in particular isserved at La Palma Restaurantin Toronto.Now, I've had a bit of experiencein making this previously,but the restaurant version ofthis dish seems very exciting.The huge lasagna baked in amassive pan, which is bakedand chilled and cut into small sectionsto be served crispy for the diners.And I think that's a great idea.So we're gonna do it 'cause it's fun.First things first is the pasta.Now we could use store-bought noodles,but I think those wouldbe a little too thick.So we need these very, very, very thinto be able to layer properly.In order to make this a loteasier, we're gonna use the helpof two food processors, 16cups of all-purpose flouror 2080 grams, 24 eggs total,a half cup of olive oiland eight teaspoons of kosher salt.These ingredients aregonna get split evenlybetween each food processorand just set to pulseuntil they have reachedalmost a ball stage.Then I'm gonna turn theseout onto our work surfacewith some bench flour and kneedthese for about 10 minutesuntil the nice supplements smoothand my wrists have beenhurting a little bit recently.So after a little bit ofkneeding, I'm gonna askfor Rachel's help to come inand do a lot of the heavy lifting.Thank you, Rachel.You're making this a lot betterand you definitely know how to kneedpasta dough a lot more than I do.These two dough balls have beenwrapped up and kneeded nicely.They're gonna go into the fridge and rest.We'd repeat our whole process again.Now that our dough has been prepped,we're going to move on to the sauces.We're gonna get startedwith our meat sauce,which does require quitean amount of vegetables.First I'm going to roughlychop up eight large carrots,which have been peeled.These are just gonna getcut into small chunksand you'll see why in a bit.Then we're gonna followup with 16 celery ribsor stalks of celery withthe edge trimmed offand again chopped up into rough chunks.Instead of hand choppingall these vegetables,I thought we might as well justlean into the food processorfor this one 'cause it's allgonna get cooked down anywaysand would probably makea more smoother sauce.We're gonna put the carrotsin one food processorand the celery in another.Just blitzing them untilthey have basicallybroken down all the way.What a beautiful color we have here.These vegetables are all goingto combine in one giant mixing bowl,like work on our onions.I'm gonna go ahead andtake eight large onions,take off the skinsand cut them into halvesbefore throwing them inthe food processor, we're also gonna gowith 20 garlic cloaks splitbetween the food processes as well.These are gonna get blitzed outuntil they turn intoa taste like situationand they go to the restof our vegetables to joinfor a giant vegetable fiesta.Kind of looks like mashed potatoes.It's funny how the onewith the carrots in itwas staining the onionso it couldn't looks likean orange creamsicle.Now that our vegetablesare ready, it is timeto give them a nice cook.So in a huge Dutch oven,probably the biggest one we have.We're gonna go ahead andput in two sticks of butter,and once that gets simmering niceand hot, we're gonna go aheadand throw in all of ourvegetables, mixing that upand letting them cook and soften.This is going to take a while.So while that goes, we're gonna go aheadand get started on ourmeat mixture separately.in a large roasting tray,we're gonna throw in oneand a half pounds of pancetta,which has been diced into small pieces.We're gonna let the fat brown itself,and once it gets crispy, we'regonna throw in three poundsof ground beef and threepounds of ground pork,breaking down those lumpsand mixing it arounduntil everybody has startedto get a nice color on it.Once everything is thoroughly combined,I decided it would be agood idea to speed things upby splitting these into two pans each justto create more surface areaand not to boil this thingthe whole time through.Half of the vegetable mixtureis going into a large wok,and the meat mixtureis going to get dividedamong two evenly sizedstainless steel pans.Now there's a lot of fatcoming out in one of theseand I don't think we need thatmuch, so we're gonna go aheadand use some paper towels toget a lot of excess fat out.Once the meat is looking very brownand started to crisp upon pretty much all sides,we're gonna transfer onepan back into the first onebecause now it hasshrunk down a little bit.We're gonna go ahead andadd six cans of tomato pasteto our rice crispy browned meat mixture.Stir that around, let the cook down,and then we're gonna deglazethat empty pan with one bottleof red wine while we put the other bottleof red wine into our meat mixture.Oh look, fire.Now that's cool.Now that a red wine is also cooked downand a lot of the alcohol hashad a chance to evaporate,we're gonna put this beautifulmeat mixture back into ourvegetables, dividing it half among each.Then they're gonna get somemilk, four cups between the bothof them, and we're also gonnaadd in four cups of stockbetween the both of themto add some seasoningand some flavor and some liquid.Once the liquids have been added,we're gonna take both off the heatand transfer the mixture fromthe wok into an oven safestainless steel pot.Now we're gonna add in nine cansof pureed tomatoesacross the both of them,as well as four tablespoonsof brown sugar per batch.I love to add a little bit of brown sugarto my pasta sauce justto emphasize thesweetness of the tomatoes.Now, once these are done,they're gonna go into an oven at350 degrees for about two to three hoursuntil they're nice and bubbly.Now that our massive amount ofmeat sauce has been accountedfor, it's time to work on the be meltor the white sauce for our lasagna.Instead of a ricottabased filling like a lotof western lasagnas,this would probably make a lotmore sense taking inspirationfrom Italian lasagna.So a white sauce thatis a little bit thinneris my way to go.In a large pot, we're gonnago ahead and melt downand brown two sticks of butter.Usually you don't brown it,but I like to brown my butter'cause well, it has alittle bit more flavor.Once the butter has been evenly browned,I'm adding in one cup of flourand stirring to make sure the raw flourtaste has been cooked out.Then once the roux has been nicely formed,we can add in one gallonof whole milk, slowly,making sure that it gets a chanceto work at all of those lumpsbefore adding more,kinda like making a crepeor a pancake batter.Once the milk has been slowly addedand our sauce looks relatively lump free,we're gonna bring this up to a simmer sothat the flour has a timeto thicken the sauce.Then we're gonna add ourseasoning, about 10 seconds worthof grading fresh nutmeginto the sauce, a tablespoonof ground pepper and a tablespoon of salt.Our white sauce is now ready.Now it's time to turn thosepasta balls we had earlier intoas many lasagna sheets as possible.Now in the 100 layersexplained by the restaurant,it's not actually 100 layers of pasta.It's 33 layers of pasta,33 layers of red sauce,and 33 layers of white saucefinished by either a layerof pasta or some more white sauce on top.So we're gonna need about 33 layersof freshly made lasagna sheets,which is quite a lot of pasta.So we're gonna try to getthese really nice and thin.I'm taking each of these pasta balls,cutting them into quartersand working with that one at a time.I'm starting from the lowest setting,which is at the one in thethickest and moving down to a twoand then actually re-laminatingit by folding it over itselfand starting it back again from one.This is going to createa little bit more chewand some better structurefor our lasagna noodles.So I like to do that at least oncebefore proceeding to roll itdown to its thinnest form.These you're gonna get really, really thin'cause I'm going all theway down to an eight.Meanwhile, Rachel is overthere helping me out,but she has to use themanual crank one while I getto enjoy the luxuries of anelectric powered pasta maker.Thank you, Rachel, for again,making this video possible.After these sheets get super longand thin, I'm gonna go aheadand trim them into large flat sheets.Approximately the widthor the length of our hotel pan,process takes us about two hours or so.It's a lot of manual rolling,cutting, trimming, flowering,and just trying to balance this pastadelicately on the back of your hands.But it is quite fun toplay with a large amountof pasta dough, almostlike curtain drapes.After our pasta dough hasbeen all rolled out as flatas they can shaped andtrimmed, we're gonna go aheadand cook these pasta sheets.Now these are super thinand made with fresh pastas.They only need about a minutein boiling water to cook that.So I have three pans here,both with salted boiling water,and we're gonna cook all ofthese pasta sheets to make surethat everything is ready for our assembly.Now, for the daunting task,making and layering all 100layers, I have a huge hotel pan.The biggest one we couldfind for commercial sales,which is about six to seven inches deepand the size of a sheet tray,a half shape to be exact.First I'm gonna take some oiland oil down the sides of this panand then put enoughparchment sheets to make surethat while we're layering this,this has an easy release,thinking for the future here.Then we begin our layering.We start with a layer of pastaand followed by a layer ofmeat sauce, which we haveto be relatively not so generouswith, as we need to be ableto make sure that we can getas many layers as in as we can.So we're gonna first start outby spreading the thinlyacross all the pastaand giving it a nice few dollopsof bechamel right on top,making sure that it alsogets smoothed out as well.Three layers down, 97 to go.We're gonna repeat theprocess over and overand over again, startingwith pasta, following upwith meat sauce and spreading a thin layerof bechamel right on top.Approximately 15 layers through,I forgot that we were supposedto also add cheese, so on topof the bechamel I'm gradingsome nice Parmesan cheesethat doesn't count as a layer,but it should add tothe flavor a little bit.And after an hour or so,we're approximately halfway through.We've gotten up to 50 layersand well, there's 50 more to go,so we just buckle downand get right to it.Pasta, meat sauce,bechamel, cheese, pasta,meat sauce, bechamel, cheese.It's quite satisfying tosee this thing get largerand larger in height.After about two hours or so,we realized that wedidn't have any more pastaand we were counting the whole time.Steve and Rachel have beenvigilantly watching mylayering process and countingeach time we move up a different layer.We got to 88 layers beforewe ran out of pasta,but we still have meat sauceand bechamel leftover,so we're gonna keepgoing and push through.Rachel and Kendall found somedry lasagna noodles in a boxthat usually make lasagna withso we're just gonna cook those offand use that to fill our remaining layers.I'm not saying it's fate,but the amount of dry lasagnanoodles that we boiled got usto 100 layers with no extra.Now I think that's pretty cool.For the final layer, I'mtaking our remaining bechameland putting in a lot ofour grated Parmesan cheese,mixing that together and justlayering that right on topto get nice and brown and crispy.We're gonna put this inan oven at 325 convectionfor about three hours.It was gonna be really lateby the time lasagna was finished cooking,so we did ask Andrew tohelp keep an eye on itand take it out after the three hour mark.So thank you, Andrew for doing that.Oh, it's a little crispyand probably a burnt on top.Probably should haveturned the convection offat some point.That was our mistake,but thank you to Andrewfor taking this out, coveringit properly, making surethat it is nicely sealed.Andrew is now gonna put thisinside his outdoor grill,which is off becauseit's super cold outsideand that seems to be the best wayto naturally refrigerate this thing'cause it won't fit in the fridge.This is me coming to retrievemy prize the next day.We're gonna go ahead and take thisdownstairs and see what we got.Oh yeah, top layer is definitely,it's a little bit too,too, too charred for my tasteand I like crispy lasagna,but I think this one'sprobably not gonna be edible.Let's take off the top layer and see.Let's just treat that as a sacrificefor the other 99 layers.Oh yeah, don't eat that.That's definitely burnt.After trimming off the partsthat are a little too dark,it is time to flip this thing,which is crazy to say, oh,it's almost gonna fall out.Just better. Go ahead and flip it.Boom, that looks pretty cool.Really nice color on the outside there.Didn't even need the parchment,it just kind of slid right out.Perfect. Now that's a lot of lasagna.Now for the reveal, we're gonna go aheadand trim off the sides tokeep as trimmings and snacksand also to create cleanercuts so we can see the layers.Oh, here we go.Whoa, that looks pretty cool.It's like a super compressed,massive brick of lasagna,which is exactly what we did.It's always interesting to methat even though we laidthe whole thing flatas we assembled it, you alwaysget these interesting wavepatterns that go on.I'm not exactly sure why that happens,but it looks pretty cool.Wanna clean this up and makesure all the sides are trimmedoff and nicely squared away.Making sure to save allof those trimmings as snacks for later.And then we're gonna go aheadand just for fun, grate a bunch of cheeseand put some parsley on top,even though this is notgonna be the final waywe serve this, but I will say thisis a pretty good lookinglasagna for its size.You can't really hear it,but everyone in the studio iscrowding around and justgiggling, taking picturesof this crazy thing that we made,and I think that's usually a good sign.So in the restaurant, howthey do it is they make itfor the size that they canslice it into really nice cleanportions to be able tosear off during service.So that's exactly what we're gonna do.We're gonna go ahead and cuta nice one inch thick sliceof lasagna, make surethat it is trimmed downto a normal portion size,and we're gonna sear this insome pan with a little bitof butter to make surethat it gets crispy,once this is seared onboth sides and each sidehas gotten a chance to caramelizeand get nice and crispy,we're gonna go ahead and get readyto plate it on a nice poolof our leftover meat sauceand a generous helping ofgrated Pecorino Romano cheeseand a sprinkling offreshly chopped parsleyto compliment the final dish.And I present to you our versionof the 100 layer lasagna found inrestaurants across the world.But the real question is,after all this work, all this laborand all that time, how does it taste?You kind of need that extrasauce for the moistureand extra cheese for the saltinessto make this little brickof seared lasagna even tastier.I think that's a really coolway of starting lasagna insteadof having to scoop it out of a nice dish.We also made sure that absolutely 0%of this lasagna was wasted.All of those trimmings andleftover lasagna was goingto be trimmed up andsliced into large portionsfor our entire studio to take home.Each person probably took home oneto two giant gallon Ziploc bagswith breaks of lasagna in it.It's going to be a great holiday.- Thanks again to Squarespacefor sponsoring today's episode.They've been a great partner in supportingthe Babish culinary universeand bringing my websites to life.From websites to online storesto domains and analytics,Squarespace is the all-in-one platformfor you to build your online presence.They also have SEO tools so that your siteis getting found in searchby more people more often.If you wanna try it for yourself,you can start your free trial todayby visiting squarespace.com/babishto get 10% off your first purchase.(bright music)\n"