THE vincisgrassi they are a fresh pasta with several layers alternating with a delicious ragout of mixed meat and entrails, cooked in the oven until a golden crust is formed. Recipe typical of the Marches and consumed throughout the region and in the surrounding areas, they are prepared above all for large meals on Sundays or holidays. Each family has handed down its recipe from generation to generation: someone prepares them by adding bechamel, others by changing the meat of the sauce, diversifying the innards and adding rooster combs or some scraps of guinea fowl. Some recipes also include the use of bovine brains. In our recipe we offer you a version with beef pulp and chicken liversfor a very intense and decisive flavor that will make this first course ideal to be served to the whole family.

Preparation

1

Pour the oil into a large pan and set aside temporarily. In the meantime, peel the carrot, clean the onion and wash the celery, then chop them finely with a sharp knife.

2

Bring the pan with the oil and the sautéed vegetables to the heat, cooking over low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the chicken livers and the beef and cook for another 10 minutes over medium heat.

3

Deglaze with the white wine and add the salt.

4

Pour in the tomato purée and add the clove, then cook over low heat for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

5

Then let the sauce cool. Meanwhile, butter a 30×25 pan. As soon as the sauce is cold, pour two ladles on the bottom.

6

Line the pan with the lasagna sheet and sprinkle it with another two or three ladles of sauce, to cover the entire surface. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

7

Continue in the same way until at least 7 layers of pasta and sauce are formed, as per the traditional recipe for vincisgrassi. Then bake in a preheated static oven at 180° for about 45 minutes, until a golden crust has formed. Serve immediately.

Advice and tips

If you use fresh pasta for lasagna you won’t need to pre-cook it, because it will cook in the oven and mix well with the ingredients. If, on the other hand, you use dry lasagna pasta, then you can make them a quick boil before assembling all the ingredients.

storage

Vincisgrassi can be kept in the fridge covered with transparent film for 2 days maximum. Alternatively, you can assemble the ingredients, cook them in the oven and freeze them all, consuming the vincisgrassi within a month. When it’s time to eat them, take them out of the freezer and let them defrost in the refrigerator for about 6-7 hours, then put them in the oven to heat them up.

History

It seems that the vincisgrassi were invented to honor the military deeds of an Austrian general, Windisch Graetz, which had strenuously defended the city of Ancona during an assault by Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops at the beginning of the 19th century. Another version tells instead that they were invented at the end of the eighteenth century by a chef from the Marches, Antonio Nebbiaborn in Macerata.