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[17 - 18] - Moment of truth is here.
[18 - 21] We're gonna flip this baby and see what happens.
[28 - 31] Look at all the layers of the meat, the cheese, you know,
[31 - 33] the bechamel just barely visible,
[33 - 36] but that makes it creamy and delicious.
[36 - 38] - [Chef] All it is a little bit of the bolognese sauce.
[38 - 42] A slab will be of the lasagna that's been nicely seared off.
[42 - 44] - [Host] Oh my god, that's so beautiful.
[44 - 45] - [Alvin] Hello there.
[45 - 47] Welcome back to another episode of Anything With Alvin
[47 - 49] where I attempt to create a fun food from the videos
[49 - 51] that I like to watch in my spare time.
[51 - 54] This episode, we're going for a 100 layer lasagna,
[54 - 55] which is a dish that
[55 - 58] although seems crazy, is served by a couple
[58 - 59] of restaurants around the world.
[59 - 62] This one in particular is served at La Palma Restaurant in Toronto.
[62 - 65] Now, I've had a bit of experience in making this previously,
[65 - 68] but the restaurant version of this dish seems very exciting.
[68 - 71] The huge lasagna baked in a massive pan, which is baked
[71 - 72] and chilled and cut into small sections
[72 - 74] to be served crispy for the diners.
[74 - 76] And I think that's a great idea.
[76 - 78] So we're gonna do it 'cause it's fun.
[78 - 79] First things first is the pasta.
[79 - 80] Now we could use store-bought noodles,
[81 - 82] but I think those would be a little too thick.
[82 - 84] So we need these very, very, very thin
[84 - 85] to be able to layer properly.
[85 - 87] In order to make this a lot easier, we're gonna use the help
[87 - 91] of two food processors, 16 cups of all-purpose flour
[91 - 95] or 2080 grams, 24 eggs total, a half cup of olive oil
[95 - 97] and eight teaspoons of kosher salt.
[97 - 99] These ingredients are gonna get split evenly
[99 - 100] between each food processor
[100 - 102] and just set to pulse until they have reached
[102 - 104] almost a ball stage.
[104 - 105] Then I'm gonna turn these out onto our work surface
[105 - 108] with some bench flour and kneed these for about 10 minutes
[108 - 109] until the nice supplements smooth
[109 - 111] and my wrists have been hurting a little bit recently.
[111 - 113] So after a little bit of kneeding, I'm gonna ask
[113 - 114] for Rachel's help to come in
[114 - 115] and do a lot of the heavy lifting.
[115 - 116] Thank you, Rachel.
[116 - 118] You're making this a lot better
[118 - 119] and you definitely know how to kneed
[119 - 120] pasta dough a lot more than I do.
[120 - 122] These two dough balls have been
[122 - 123] wrapped up and kneeded nicely.
[123 - 125] They're gonna go into the fridge and rest.
[125 - 126] We'd repeat our whole process again.
[126 - 128] Now that our dough has been prepped,
[128 - 130] we're going to move on to the sauces.
[130 - 132] We're gonna get started with our meat sauce,
[132 - 134] which does require quite an amount of vegetables.
[134 - 136] First I'm going to roughly chop up eight large carrots,
[136 - 137] which have been peeled.
[138 - 139] These are just gonna get cut into small chunks
[139 - 141] and you'll see why in a bit.
[141 - 143] Then we're gonna follow up with 16 celery ribs
[143 - 145] or stalks of celery with the edge trimmed off
[145 - 147] and again chopped up into rough chunks.
[147 - 149] Instead of hand chopping all these vegetables,
[149 - 151] I thought we might as well just lean into the food processor
[151 - 154] for this one 'cause it's all gonna get cooked down anyways
[154 - 156] and would probably make a more smoother sauce.
[156 - 158] We're gonna put the carrots in one food processor
[158 - 159] and the celery in another.
[159 - 161] Just blitzing them until they have basically
[161 - 162] broken down all the way.
[162 - 164] What a beautiful color we have here.
[164 - 165] These vegetables are all going
[165 - 167] to combine in one giant mixing bowl,
[167 - 168] like work on our onions.
[168 - 170] I'm gonna go ahead and take eight large onions,
[170 - 171] take off the skins
[171 - 173] and cut them into halves before throwing them in
[173 - 175] the food processor, we're also gonna go
[175 - 176] with 20 garlic cloaks split
[176 - 178] between the food processes as well.
[178 - 179] These are gonna get blitzed out
[179 - 181] until they turn into a taste like situation
[181 - 183] and they go to the rest of our vegetables to join
[183 - 185] for a giant vegetable fiesta.
[185 - 187] Kind of looks like mashed potatoes.
[187 - 188] It's funny how the one
[188 - 190] with the carrots in it was staining the onion
[190 - 192] so it couldn't looks like an orange creamsicle.
[192 - 194] Now that our vegetables are ready, it is time
[194 - 195] to give them a nice cook.
[195 - 198] So in a huge Dutch oven, probably the biggest one we have.
[198 - 201] We're gonna go ahead and put in two sticks of butter,
[201 - 202] and once that gets simmering nice
[202 - 203] and hot, we're gonna go ahead
[203 - 206] and throw in all of our vegetables, mixing that up
[206 - 207] and letting them cook and soften.
[207 - 208] This is going to take a while.
[208 - 210] So while that goes, we're gonna go ahead
[210 - 212] and get started on our meat mixture separately.
[212 - 213] in a large roasting tray,
[213 - 215] we're gonna throw in one
[215 - 216] and a half pounds of pancetta,
[216 - 218] which has been diced into small pieces.
[218 - 220] We're gonna let the fat brown itself,
[220 - 222] and once it gets crispy, we're gonna throw in three pounds
[222 - 225] of ground beef and three pounds of ground pork,
[225 - 226] breaking down those lumps and mixing it around
[226 - 229] until everybody has started to get a nice color on it.
[229 - 231] Once everything is thoroughly combined,
[231 - 233] I decided it would be a good idea to speed things up
[233 - 236] by splitting these into two pans each just
[236 - 238] to create more surface area and not to boil this thing
[238 - 239] the whole time through.
[239 - 242] Half of the vegetable mixture is going into a large wok,
[242 - 243] and the meat mixture is going to get divided
[243 - 246] among two evenly sized stainless steel pans.
[246 - 248] Now there's a lot of fat coming out in one of these
[248 - 250] and I don't think we need that much, so we're gonna go ahead
[250 - 253] and use some paper towels to get a lot of excess fat out.
[253 - 254] Once the meat is looking very brown
[254 - 257] and started to crisp up on pretty much all sides,
[257 - 259] we're gonna transfer one pan back into the first one
[259 - 260] because now it has shrunk down a little bit.
[260 - 263] We're gonna go ahead and add six cans of tomato paste
[263 - 265] to our rice crispy browned meat mixture.
[265 - 267] Stir that around, let the cook down,
[267 - 270] and then we're gonna deglaze that empty pan with one bottle
[270 - 271] of red wine while we put the other bottle
[271 - 273] of red wine into our meat mixture.
[273 - 275] Oh look, fire.
[275 - 276] Now that's cool.
[276 - 278] Now that a red wine is also cooked down
[278 - 280] and a lot of the alcohol has had a chance to evaporate,
[280 - 283] we're gonna put this beautiful meat mixture back into our
[283 - 285] vegetables, dividing it half among each.
[285 - 287] Then they're gonna get some milk, four cups between the both
[287 - 290] of them, and we're also gonna add in four cups of stock
[290 - 292] between the both of them to add some seasoning
[292 - 293] and some flavor and some liquid.
[293 - 295] Once the liquids have been added,
[295 - 296] we're gonna take both off the heat
[296 - 299] and transfer the mixture from the wok into an oven safe
[299 - 300] stainless steel pot.
[300 - 302] Now we're gonna add in nine cans
[302 - 304] of pureed tomatoes across the both of them,
[304 - 308] as well as four tablespoons of brown sugar per batch.
[308 - 309] I love to add a little bit of brown sugar
[309 - 311] to my pasta sauce just
[311 - 313] to emphasize the sweetness of the tomatoes.
[313 - 315] Now, once these are done, they're gonna go into an oven at
[315 - 318] 350 degrees for about two to three hours
[318 - 320] until they're nice and bubbly.
[320 - 322] Now that our massive amount of meat sauce has been accounted
[322 - 324] for, it's time to work on the be melt
[324 - 326] or the white sauce for our lasagna.
[326 - 328] Instead of a ricotta based filling like a lot
[328 - 329] of western lasagnas,
[329 - 331] this would probably make a lot more sense taking inspiration
[331 - 333] from Italian lasagna.
[333 - 334] So a white sauce that is a little bit thinner
[334 - 336] is my way to go.
[336 - 338] In a large pot, we're gonna go ahead and melt down
[338 - 339] and brown two sticks of butter.
[339 - 342] Usually you don't brown it, but I like to brown my butter
[342 - 344] 'cause well, it has a little bit more flavor.
[344 - 345] Once the butter has been evenly browned,
[345 - 347] I'm adding in one cup of flour
[347 - 348] and stirring to make sure the raw flour
[348 - 350] taste has been cooked out.
[350 - 352] Then once the roux has been nicely formed,
[352 - 354] we can add in one gallon of whole milk, slowly,
[354 - 356] making sure that it gets a chance
[356 - 357] to work at all of those lumps
[357 - 359] before adding more, kinda like making a crepe
[359 - 360] or a pancake batter.
[360 - 362] Once the milk has been slowly added
[362 - 364] and our sauce looks relatively lump free,
[364 - 365] we're gonna bring this up to a simmer so
[365 - 368] that the flour has a time to thicken the sauce.
[368 - 370] Then we're gonna add our seasoning, about 10 seconds worth
[370 - 373] of grading fresh nutmeg into the sauce, a tablespoon
[373 - 376] of ground pepper and a tablespoon of salt.
[376 - 377] Our white sauce is now ready.
[377 - 380] Now it's time to turn those pasta balls we had earlier into
[380 - 382] as many lasagna sheets as possible.
[382 - 385] Now in the 100 layers explained by the restaurant,
[385 - 387] it's not actually 100 layers of pasta.
[387 - 390] It's 33 layers of pasta, 33 layers of red sauce,
[390 - 393] and 33 layers of white sauce finished by either a layer
[393 - 395] of pasta or some more white sauce on top.
[395 - 398] So we're gonna need about 33 layers
[398 - 400] of freshly made lasagna sheets,
[400 - 401] which is quite a lot of pasta.
[401 - 403] So we're gonna try to get these really nice and thin.
[403 - 405] I'm taking each of these pasta balls,
[405 - 406] cutting them into quarters
[406 - 408] and working with that one at a time.
[408 - 409] I'm starting from the lowest setting,
[409 - 412] which is at the one in the thickest and moving down to a two
[412 - 415] and then actually re-laminating it by folding it over itself
[415 - 416] and starting it back again from one.
[416 - 418] This is going to create a little bit more chew
[418 - 420] and some better structure for our lasagna noodles.
[420 - 422] So I like to do that at least once
[422 - 424] before proceeding to roll it down to its thinnest form.
[424 - 425] These you're gonna get really, really thin
[425 - 427] 'cause I'm going all the way down to an eight.
[427 - 429] Meanwhile, Rachel is over there helping me out,
[429 - 432] but she has to use the manual crank one while I get
[432 - 435] to enjoy the luxuries of an electric powered pasta maker.
[435 - 438] Thank you, Rachel, for again, making this video possible.
[438 - 439] After these sheets get super long
[439 - 440] and thin, I'm gonna go ahead
[440 - 442] and trim them into large flat sheets.
[442 - 443] Approximately the width
[443 - 445] or the length of our hotel pan,
[445 - 448] process takes us about two hours or so.
[448 - 451] It's a lot of manual rolling, cutting, trimming, flowering,
[451 - 453] and just trying to balance this pasta
[453 - 454] delicately on the back of your hands.
[454 - 456] But it is quite fun to play with a large amount
[456 - 458] of pasta dough, almost like curtain drapes.
[458 - 461] After our pasta dough has been all rolled out as flat
[461 - 464] as they can shaped and trimmed, we're gonna go ahead
[464 - 465] and cook these pasta sheets.
[465 - 468] Now these are super thin and made with fresh pastas.
[468 - 470] They only need about a minute in boiling water to cook that.
[470 - 473] So I have three pans here, both with salted boiling water,
[473 - 475] and we're gonna cook all of these pasta sheets to make sure
[475 - 478] that everything is ready for our assembly.
[478 - 479] Now, for the daunting task,
[479 - 483] making and layering all 100 layers, I have a huge hotel pan.
[483 - 486] The biggest one we could find for commercial sales,
[486 - 488] which is about six to seven inches deep
[488 - 491] and the size of a sheet tray, a half shape to be exact.
[491 - 492] First I'm gonna take some oil
[492 - 494] and oil down the sides of this pan
[494 - 496] and then put enough parchment sheets to make sure
[496 - 497] that while we're layering this,
[497 - 499] this has an easy release, thinking for the future here.
[499 - 501] Then we begin our layering.
[501 - 502] We start with a layer of pasta
[502 - 505] and followed by a layer of meat sauce, which we have
[505 - 508] to be relatively not so generous with, as we need to be able
[508 - 510] to make sure that we can get as many layers as in as we can.
[510 - 511] So we're gonna first start out
[511 - 513] by spreading the thinly across all the pasta
[513 - 516] and giving it a nice few dollops of bechamel right on top,
[516 - 518] making sure that it also gets smoothed out as well.
[518 - 520] Three layers down, 97 to go.
[520 - 522] We're gonna repeat the process over and over
[522 - 525] and over again, starting with pasta, following up
[525 - 526] with meat sauce and spreading a thin layer
[526 - 528] of bechamel right on top.
[528 - 529] Approximately 15 layers through,
[529 - 532] I forgot that we were supposed to also add cheese, so on top
[532 - 534] of the bechamel I'm grading some nice Parmesan cheese
[534 - 536] that doesn't count as a layer,
[536 - 537] but it should add to the flavor a little bit.
[537 - 539] And after an hour or so,
[539 - 540] we're approximately halfway through.
[540 - 542] We've gotten up to 50 layers
[542 - 544] and well, there's 50 more to go,
[544 - 546] so we just buckle down and get right to it.
[546 - 548] Pasta, meat sauce, bechamel, cheese, pasta,
[548 - 550] meat sauce, bechamel, cheese.
[550 - 552] It's quite satisfying to see this thing get larger
[552 - 553] and larger in height.
[553 - 554] After about two hours or so,
[554 - 557] we realized that we didn't have any more pasta
[557 - 558] and we were counting the whole time.
[558 - 560] Steve and Rachel have been vigilantly watching my
[561 - 562] layering process and counting
[562 - 564] each time we move up a different layer.
[564 - 566] We got to 88 layers before we ran out of pasta,
[566 - 567] but we still have meat sauce
[567 - 569] and bechamel leftover,
[569 - 571] so we're gonna keep going and push through.
[571 - 574] Rachel and Kendall found some dry lasagna noodles in a box
[574 - 575] that usually make lasagna with
[575 - 577] so we're just gonna cook those off
[577 - 578] and use that to fill our remaining layers.
[578 - 580] I'm not saying it's fate,
[580 - 583] but the amount of dry lasagna noodles that we boiled got us
[583 - 585] to 100 layers with no extra.
[585 - 586] Now I think that's pretty cool.
[586 - 589] For the final layer, I'm taking our remaining bechamel
[589 - 591] and putting in a lot of our grated Parmesan cheese,
[591 - 594] mixing that together and just layering that right on top
[594 - 596] to get nice and brown and crispy.
[596 - 600] We're gonna put this in an oven at 325 convection
[600 - 601] for about three hours.
[601 - 602] It was gonna be really late
[602 - 604] by the time lasagna was finished cooking,
[604 - 606] so we did ask Andrew to help keep an eye on it
[606 - 609] and take it out after the three hour mark.
[609 - 610] So thank you, Andrew for doing that.
[610 - 615] Oh, it's a little crispy and probably a burnt on top.
[615 - 617] Probably should have turned the convection off
[617 - 618] at some point.
[618 - 620] That was our mistake, but thank you to Andrew
[620 - 622] for taking this out, covering it properly, making sure
[622 - 624] that it is nicely sealed.
[624 - 626] Andrew is now gonna put this inside his outdoor grill,
[626 - 629] which is off because it's super cold outside
[629 - 630] and that seems to be the best way
[630 - 632] to naturally refrigerate this thing
[632 - 633] 'cause it won't fit in the fridge.
[633 - 636] This is me coming to retrieve my prize the next day.
[636 - 637] We're gonna go ahead and take this
[637 - 639] downstairs and see what we got.
[639 - 642] Oh yeah, top layer is definitely, it's a little bit too,
[642 - 645] too, too charred for my taste and I like crispy lasagna,
[645 - 647] but I think this one's probably not gonna be edible.
[648 - 649] Let's take off the top layer and see.
[649 - 651] Let's just treat that as a sacrifice
[651 - 653] for the other 99 layers.
[653 - 654] Oh yeah, don't eat that.
[654 - 656] That's definitely burnt.
[656 - 658] After trimming off the parts that are a little too dark,
[658 - 661] it is time to flip this thing, which is crazy to say, oh,
[661 - 663] it's almost gonna fall out.
[663 - 664] Just better. Go ahead and flip it.
[664 - 666] Boom, that looks pretty cool.
[666 - 668] Really nice color on the outside there.
[668 - 669] Didn't even need the parchment,
[669 - 671] it just kind of slid right out.
[671 - 673] Perfect. Now that's a lot of lasagna.
[673 - 674] Now for the reveal, we're gonna go ahead
[674 - 678] and trim off the sides to keep as trimmings and snacks
[678 - 680] and also to create cleaner cuts so we can see the layers.
[680 - 682] Oh, here we go.
[682 - 684] Whoa, that looks pretty cool.
[684 - 688] It's like a super compressed, massive brick of lasagna,
[688 - 689] which is exactly what we did.
[689 - 690] It's always interesting to me
[690 - 693] that even though we laid the whole thing flat
[693 - 695] as we assembled it, you always get these interesting wave
[695 - 696] patterns that go on.
[696 - 698] I'm not exactly sure why that happens,
[698 - 699] but it looks pretty cool.
[699 - 702] Wanna clean this up and make sure all the sides are trimmed
[702 - 703] off and nicely squared away.
[703 - 704] Making sure to save all
[704 - 706] of those trimmings as snacks for later.
[706 - 707] And then we're gonna go ahead
[707 - 709] and just for fun, grate a bunch of cheese
[709 - 710] and put some parsley on top,
[710 - 712] even though this is not gonna be the final way
[712 - 714] we serve this, but I will say this
[714 - 717] is a pretty good looking lasagna for its size.
[717 - 719] You can't really hear it, but everyone in the studio is
[719 - 721] crowding around and just giggling, taking pictures
[721 - 723] of this crazy thing that we made,
[723 - 725] and I think that's usually a good sign.
[725 - 727] So in the restaurant, how they do it is they make it
[727 - 730] for the size that they can slice it into really nice clean
[730 - 733] portions to be able to sear off during service.
[733 - 734] So that's exactly what we're gonna do.
[734 - 738] We're gonna go ahead and cut a nice one inch thick slice
[738 - 740] of lasagna, make sure that it is trimmed down
[740 - 742] to a normal portion size,
[742 - 744] and we're gonna sear this in some pan with a little bit
[744 - 746] of butter to make sure that it gets crispy,
[746 - 748] once this is seared on both sides and each side
[748 - 751] has gotten a chance to caramelize and get nice and crispy,
[751 - 752] we're gonna go ahead and get ready
[752 - 755] to plate it on a nice pool of our leftover meat sauce
[755 - 758] and a generous helping of grated Pecorino Romano cheese
[758 - 760] and a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley
[760 - 762] to compliment the final dish.
[762 - 764] And I present to you our version
[764 - 766] of the 100 layer lasagna found in
[766 - 767] restaurants across the world.
[767 - 768] But the real question is,
[768 - 770] after all this work, all this labor
[770 - 772] and all that time, how does it taste?
[772 - 774] You kind of need that extra sauce for the moisture
[774 - 777] and extra cheese for the saltiness to make this little brick
[777 - 779] of seared lasagna even tastier.
[779 - 781] I think that's a really cool way of starting lasagna instead
[781 - 783] of having to scoop it out of a nice dish.
[783 - 785] We also made sure that absolutely 0%
[785 - 787] of this lasagna was wasted.
[787 - 789] All of those trimmings and leftover lasagna was going
[789 - 792] to be trimmed up and sliced into large portions
[792 - 794] for our entire studio to take home.
[794 - 795] Each person probably took home one
[795 - 797] to two giant gallon Ziploc bags
[797 - 798] with breaks of lasagna in it.
[798 - 801] It's going to be a great holiday.
[801 - 802] - [Narrator] Thanks again to Squarespace
[802 - 804] for sponsoring today's episode.
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