If you like Lasagna Bolognese and love Italian fish recipes, this is the right recipe for you: Fish Lasagna recipe. In this delicious baked recipe, the sauce between one layer and another of fresh egg pasta is made up of a fish ragu and a special Béchamel sauce.
This béchamel is very light because it’s without milk and without butter. It’s made with a little oil and some fish broth in order to make the taste and scent of the sea even more intense. The flavor of this bechamel enhances that of the fish and makes the dish creamy and soft but very light.
Fish lasagna is a perfect first course to share with family or friends and you can make it even the day before. In Italy fish lasagna is often prepared for family Christmas dinner.
So now try this Italian fish lasagna recipe. Your guests will be won over!
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Fish Lasagna Recipe
- Prep Time: 30 Min
- Cook Time:1 H and 30 Min
- Servings: 8
Ingredients
Doses for a 13×9 inch lasagna pan.
For Fish Ragu
NOTE: weight refers to the whole fish still to be cleaned.
- 150 g (5 oz) of Squid
- 150 g (5 oz) of Cuttlefish
- 1 whole sea bass of about 400 g (14 oz) or about 150 g (5 oz) of sea bass fillet
- 200 g (7 oz) of Scampi
- 150 g (5 oz) of Shrimps
- 350 g (12,3 oz) of tomato passata
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 small onion
- a bunch of chopped fresh parsley
- 60 ml of dry white wine
- 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
The Fish Stock
- 1 stalk of celery
- 1 liter of water
- half tablespoon of coarse salt
- 1 medium shallot
- all fish waste (except the entrails) and the claws of crustaceans
- 1 medium carrot
For Lasagna
- About 12 lasagna: you can make fresh homemade lasagna noodles following our step by step recipe
- Or you can buy authentic Italian flat lasagna, oven ready (no cooking or boiling necessary), made with durum wheat (we recommend Tuscanini brand)
For Fish Bèchamel sauce
- 750 ml of fish stock
- 100 g (3,5 oz) of “00” flour
- 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- fine salt
- fresh ground black pepper
Directions
First of all: Make the Fish Ragu Sauce
To make this exquisite and delicate Fish Lasagna recipe, first you have to make the main condiment which, together with the bechamel, will fill the lasagna layers: the fish ragu. This sauce is based on a mixture of crustaceans, molluscs, fish fillets and tomato passata. You can prepare the fish sauce even 1 or 2 days before and keep it in the refrigerator.
We summarize below the basic steps to make the fish ragu. For more informations and the detailed recipe see our step by step Fish Ragu Recipe.
Step 1) – Clean the fish well and prepare a fish stock with the scraps, shells and claws, about a liter of water, a carrot, a piece of celery and a shallot. Boil all together for at least 40 minutes.
This stock will be useful both for cooking the fish sauce and for preparing the bechamel (Step 4 – 5). If you use fish that is already cleaned and therefore have no waste, make with a vegetable broth; obviously the flavor will be less intense.
Step 2) – Make a soffritto with oil, garlic, onion and chopped parsley. Add the molluscs (squid and cuttlefish) cleaned and cut into small pieces and cook for about 5 minutes.
Then blend with the white wine and add the tomato passata. Cook for about 40 minutes adding a little fish stock when necessary.
Step 3) – Now add the shellfish (shrimps and scampi) and the sea bass fillets, always cleaned and cut into pieces.
Keep some shrimp whole. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring well.
For a successful fish ragu, cooking times are very important. Each type of fish has a different cooking time and you have to add it to the fish ragu based on that. Now the fish ragu is ready, keep it aside.
Make the Velvety Sauce: Fish Bechamel without Butter and Milk
Step 4) – In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the flour all in one go. Mix with a whisk until the flour is completely soaked in oil.
Step 5) – Then pour in slowly the hot fish stock, keeping to mix to avoid lumps. Let it cook until you get a smooth and thickened – but still quite fluid – sauce. Finally add a pinch of salt and pepper.
Prepare Fish Lasagna
Now that you have all the main preparations, we can start assembling the layers of your fish lasagna.
If you are using fresh pasta lasagna made with our recipe, DO NOT FORGET to dip them 1 minute in boiling salted water and let cool and dry on kitchen towels before using them for your lasagna recipe.
If you are using the lasagna noodles that we have recommended in the ingredients, you do NOT NEED TO COOK them. They will cook in the oven thanks to the liquids of the fish ragu and bechamel.
Step 6) – Spread on the bottom of a baking dish two tablespoons of bechamel. Then put a lasagna noodle over it, trying to cover the entire bottom of the pan. If one lasagna is not enough for you, use another one, whole or in half, depending on the size of the lasagna.
Step 7) – Then layer on two tablespoons of fish ragu and two of fish bechamel sauce. With the help of a spoon, cover the entire surface.
Step 8) – Repeat these steps for about five layers (lasagna – fish ragu – bèchamel ), in any case up to fill your baking dish. To the last layer, add a little more sauce and béchamel to form, during cooking, a crispy crust on the surface of the lasagna.
Step 9) – Bake in a preheated oven at 180 ° C (350 F) for about 30 minutes. For the first 10 minutes it is better keep the fish lasagna covered with a sheet of aluminum foil so that the sauce and the pieces of fish on the surface do not dry out too much.
Before serving, let the fish lasagna rest for about 10 minutes out of the oven. Serve with a little fresh chopped parsley or ground black pepper according to taste.
Storage
Fish lasagna can be kept in the fridge covered with cling film for maximum of 1-2 days. You can even freeze fish lasagna, both raw and cooked.
