Baked green lasagna with meat sauce and bechamel

Chop the onion, celery and carrot on the board with a knife: the battuto.

Over medium heat melt three tablespoons of butter with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, add half a cup of chopped onion and cook until translucent: the soffritto. Add two thirds of a cup each of chopped celery and carrot and cook two minutes.

Add three quarters of a pound of ground chuck with a large pinch of salt and a few cracks of black pepper and stir until it has lost its red raw colour.

Add a cup of whole milk and let it evaporate slowly at a gentle simmer, about 15 minutes.

Grate in about an eighth of a teaspoon of the unnamed spice, add a cup of dry white wine and simmer until evaporated, 15 to 20 minutes.

Squeeze the canned plum tomatoes in by hand, coat everything and bring to a simmer uncovered, seasoning along the way and adding a little water if it thickens.

Hold at the laziest simmer with only an intermittent bubble for around three hours or more.

Put the drained spinach in a pan with no more water than clings to it, sprinkle a quarter teaspoon of salt, cover and cook over medium heat five minutes.

Drain the wilted spinach and, when cool enough, squeeze out the remaining liquid. Chop it finely by hand, not in a food processor, which dries it out too much.

Mound 200 g of double zero flour on the surface, make a well, beat two eggs in it as if making an omelette, then work the spinach in for about a minute.

Draw the flour nearest the eggs in first, then work flour and eggs together with fingers and palms, using only as much flour as necessary.

Press down with the heel of the hand, fold in half, give it a clockwise half turn and repeat on a floured surface for eight minutes.

Wrap the dough and rest it in the fridge about half an hour.

Bring three cups of milk just to the point of boiling in a small saucepan.

Melt butter in a second saucepan, add three tablespoons of flour and stir constantly two minutes.

Add a couple of tablespoons of the nearly boiling milk and stir in, then continue half a cup at a time until all the milk is incorporated; whisk smooth.

Add about a quarter teaspoon of salt, lower the heat and stir until creamy and thickened, about 10 minutes. Hold it warm in a double boiler.

Cut the dough into six pieces. Flatten one with the palm, fold it twice and feed it through the pasta machine, notching thinner each turn and keeping it as wide as possible, to 10 inches long and four and a half inches wide.

Hang the strips to air dry.

Bring five quarts of water to a boil with a tablespoon of salt, and set a bowl of cold water with a couple of ice cubes beside it.

Cook four or five strips at a time for only seconds after the water returns to a boil, then move them into the cold water.

Rinse and rub the strips delicately under cold running water, then spread them on towels and pat dry.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Pour the bechamel through a sieve to remove the skin and clumps.

Smear the baking dish thickly with butter and one tablespoon of the bechamel, and line the bottom with a single layer of pasta strips overlapping no more than a quarter inch.

Combine the meat sauce and the bechamel and spread a thin coat over the pasta, then sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

Repeat: pasta, a thin layer of the bechamel meat sauce, Parmesan, filling gaps with broken pieces.

Finish with a very thin layer of the sauce, an even layer of Parmesan and dots of butter.

Bake on the uppermost rack 10 to 15 minutes, until a light golden crust forms on top.