With Mr James’ reservedness and Mr Vincenzo’s “Italianness” (If my Sister in Law is anything to go by) then that would be the mother of All reaction videos! Mr James…MAKE…THIS…HAPPEN! Also, stay classy, Mr Vincenzo…
just wait until a video comes out that is a food critic reacting to a chef, reacting to a chef, reacting to a chef reacting to chefs reacting to a steak specialist. to clear up the confusion, i mean Uncle Roger reacting to joshua weisman reacting to vincenzo reacting to james makinson reacting to brian and frenchie reacting to Guga. inception at it's finest.
On paper it sounds ridiculous, but I live watching it. It’s kinda like watching a video you’ve already watched to see what your friend thinks, but twice. Right?
Before anyone starts hating on James reacting to other cooking videos i recommend you to check HIS cooking videos. So far he is the only people who not making them mediocre like everyone others do. He didn't smashing ingridients to the desk, didn't spank the meat, didn't make stupid meaningless gasping sounds or gestures, he didn't make his cooking videos out like an ASMR... His videos are original, he got his own style and i much MUCH more prefer him over every famous cook youtuber. Keep it up my friend, love and respect from Hungary!
Chef, here’s a suggestion. How about watching videos of recipes you’ve never tasted and then recreate them to see how they taste for us to watch? I don’t know about your other viewers, but I would love something like this to be a series.
To be fair it doesn't look like a massive portion, which is probably how it comes to $1 per person. Maybe it's just me but when I make lasagna I want a piece bigger than that lol
even 2 slices put together would be just $2 i really like that josh shows these cheaper aimed videos, yes somtimes i go all out on buying great products but day to day i need my food to cost £2-4 per meal also would love you to make this and compare with your verision @@ChefJamesMakinson
it was joshua's video that made me make my own lasagna. I pretty much did all the same things except I followed vincenzo's recipe for the ragu. So it had the carrots and celery, and cooked for hours and hours. I made a huge pot of it, and canned the excess in ball jars.
@@sasmetz56 ya... but japanese's knives look amazing, have a perfect balance and strength to it(you can literally feel it) and their sharpness doesn't fade away so quickly, even if you cut a bone with it... the only downside to it is you need a separate sharpening stone and heck lot of patience to sharpen it or else you will ruin the blade... that's another headache...
He's using the packet pasta to build the lasagne lol. He showed at the start that the straight pasta was what he made and the textured edge pasta was the bought ones.
This could definitely very well take several hours to do when you put all that together in consideration & having to find the appropriate timeframe to slot it in during the day if you live a busy life.
@@Enthusiastic-Trainspotter-BNE Yes, that is how lasagna is. It is a time consuming process if you want to do it correctly. This is "cheaper", not "faster". The fact it takes just as long as expensive lasagna is totally irrelevant.
Vincenzo is a really nice dude too, my girls cooked with him one time at the local shopping centre when he was there in the school holidays. They both loved him and said how cool he was. Stuff is expensive in Australia man, it’s $10 for a McDonalds happy meal now. We get gouged on everything. We live in a town close to vineyards and because the Sydney crowd invades the vineyards every holidays and weekends, the restaurants out there are insanely expensive. One restaurant that I used to go to for work was so exclusive it had a helicopter landing pad outside. All the celebs would go there when there was events in the vineyards.
its not that expensive tho. vincenzo said that a small block of mozzarella is like 8 bucks, hes wrong. 125g of fresh mozzarella is $3aud, which is equivalent to $2usd
@@thesausage351 nah it's not locational, my local woolies also has the mozzarella you're talking about (the one in the tub), the $3 one is by the same brand (la casa del formaggio) but it's in a packet
@@thesausage351 Hence why both the big Coles and Woolies need to be clipped over the ear. They do price and stock things depending on the demographic of the suburb, further gentrifying areas for property developers. .. Don't get me started on what they did to the dairy industry...
Also, something else to notice, if you take a bottle of olive oil, bag of salt..etc and divide the whole containers per servings/portions, let’s say a box of salt is $1.45 and you get about a .02 cent total, the same can be said for olive oil is $8 for 750ml, which would come out to about $0.16 per serving, so it is entirely doable to make a $1 per serving lasagna.. This from the person who hates numbers and number’s hate her..lol We work with what we have and we make the best of it. This was how I was able to survive and thrived with being bed bound for 5 years with only a full time min wage income coming into the house and this being in Canada no less..
in Germany we have a combination of veggies called "Suppengrün"(soup green), which is usually carrot, celery root, parsley root and leek sold in a bundle. it works wonders as a base for any soup. I used it for bolognese as well. Mine cooks for at least an hour though, don't know if I like that quick ragout
@@ChefJamesMakinson In Poland it's also sold together under the name "włoszczyzna" - which could be translated to "the italian stuff" ;) My family indeed uses them as a soup base, sauce base... A lot of dishes begin with "fry diced onion/leek, add diced garlic, then grated carrots and celery root and/or parsley root".
A note on fresh vs dried pasta: fresh pasta is great for certain dishes like lasagna where the dish needs a fresh noodle. However, for most pasta dishes from Italy, you will need very high quality bronze extruded, slow dried pasta. There are many instances where dried pasta is superior to fresh but it is all highly situational.
I can't wait til i see Uncle Roger reacting to Jamie Oliver, reacting to Gordon Ramsey, reacting to Jack, reacting to James, reacting to Vincent, reacting to Joshua.
I use domestic parmesan cheese for lasagna. My version is a thinner sauce because I don't cook the whole wheat noodles. It turns out well. I do wrap the foil around the entire pan before putting it in the oven. At home, I usually do meatless. For the soup kitchen and homeless shelters, I do just lean ground beef. I've also made it from venison or elk in the past. That depends on the Sheriff's department because they often bring us road kill meat. At home I grate the cheeses. At work then I use all pregrated mozzarella because I have to get it done within the alloted time. For this reason, I use garlic powder and dried Italian seasoning. The Costco brand is the best quality and within the soup kitchen's budget. At home, I either use the dried herbs that I harvested or fresh, depending on the time of year. I do grate some carrots and put it into the sauce to pack more vitamins into the overall dish. Especially important for the soup kitchen and homeless shelters. I've seen a lot of very malnourished people come to eat at the soup kitchen. I can say this.... Whenever I made lasagna at work, I always had folks wanting seconds or rave about the food. Its nice to put some cheer into these people's lives.
My wife and I have made this specific Josh's lasagna. Up to that point we'd only had pretty terrible lasagnas--mostly soup affairs with no real focused taste. We made the pasta by hand, and at the end pleasantly surprised by the result. Try and see what you think Chef James; I'll be interested to hear your additional insights.
I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the standard of using ricotta and the standard of substituting cottage cheese for it in the US both come from _The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook_ in it's classic red plaid cover design.
My mum usually uses cottage cheese in her's, though I will sometimes mix half cottage cheese half ricotta for mine to make it a little dryer and it tastes great :)
My last lasagna cost about $40 Canadian (for entire pan) but I went big on flavor and non-standard... 6 de-cased and browned chorizo to make meat sauce (basically a Bolognaise of sorts) - 500g ricotta, 500g mozza for topping, parm reggiano sprinkled in layers. Fresh pasta sheets for the lasagna (kinda pricy part) - Spicy, cheesy and oh so delectable i never actually pre-cook the pasta though.... fresh cooks very quickly and wanted some bite. As long as your sauce has enough moisture to cook/absorb
I live in Los Angeles County, California. Following prices are at Walmart: Ground Pork is $7.98 for 2 lbs, so half for a pound. Ground beef is $4.97 lb. The smallest container of ricotta is 15oz, Great Value (Walmart store brand), which costs $2.52 per container. The smallest block of mozzarella at the same store is 8oz for $2 or 16oz for $2.98. An 8oz wedge of Belgioso parmesana is $5.14. $19.64 divided by 12 servings=$1.64...now that is NOT counting the pasta or the tomato sauce. Here, that dish would NOT be made for the price he is quoting. My food costs have gone up between 200% and 300% in the past year, and I'm a single senior citizen who is a home cook and uses veges from the garden. Food costs are ridiculous. (One more thought I would like to add...while his lasagna looks good, it is more like a pasta casserole with a little bit of filling inbetween the noodles. I would expect more from a restaurant and certainly would not feed that chintzy quantity of fillings to my family. What he is doing is shortcutting the filling to fit the price point he wanted to achieve, but didn't.)
I love Vincenzo's intensity, and the inputs from Chef Jaime are the best!!! Can´t wait for both to Collab cooking something, Vincenzo makes italy tours every now and then maybe you guys can coordinate while he's in italy or him to deviate a bit to Spain? I hope it is done!
Josh is out here doing the good work! ...He's doing like the WolfePIt channel and showing us you can still make good quality meals for your family, even if you're on a tight budget.
I live in Greece and we have a lot of different types of cheeses and also very similar ones to parmigiano regiano such as Graviera.Kefalotyri is also a dry cheese but not as dry as Graviera.So whenever we have lasagna or similar baked goods in my household,we opt to use local products/greek products as they come cheaper than imported ones.And t he result is still tasty and close to the original version!
Moussaka and lasagna. I love them both. I do the moussaka with a bechemel on top, but this video blew my mind with the bechemel on an Italian lasagna. How come I’ve never heard of this.
I use 3 cheeses: mozzarella, Italian parmesan (the word "parmesan" is protected here, unlike in the US) and mascarpone instead of ricotta. Mascarpone gives the lasagna a really creamy texture and taste.
Breaking the Pasta was always my job as a little kid. whenever my mom made Lasagna, trust me I LOVED breaking it and eating the little bits that where left.
I just use a Hillview 1kg block of Tasty Cheddar for everything. It melts well, has a lovely creamy flavour a bit like Colby, and if I buy fancy cheeses I just end up wasting cheese and feeling bad about it... Took me a long time to find a cheese that I was happy doing absolutely everything with, but this one's been a success.
Those 40 euro slices of mousaka are definitely tourist traps. I can make an entire tray for 40 euro lmao. But yeah it is way more involved and better than lasagna cause instead of the pasta sheets you have deep fried eggplants and potatoes, and we put fried zuccini in our family recipe too, and mushrooms in the meat sauce. It's to die for. And you just might with all that oil. XD
Anxiously awaiting your review of this lasagna recipe brotha. Love how the cooking community is growing together, I don't see as much of the crossover stuff in other videos. I'd love to see you, Vicenzo, and Josh get together on a lasagna video and then share food knowledge and best practices. I watch Guga, Uncle Roger, and Chef Brian Tso with Frenchie. Man world I love to see you all jump in one one big cookout. Now that would break the Internet but fill our souls with so much Yuminess! Let's goooooo! Great video my brotha, keep em coming!
I love fresh pasta but settle for dried when making lasagna. Usually, I will use no boil sheets and it comes out really good. the texture strikes me as similar to fresh. For sauce, it depends on what I have on hand. Aromatics always include onions and if I have one, a yellow/orange bell pepper. I don't usually do a bolognese. For meat, beef dominates, but I try to use half/half with pork. We use some DOP San Marzano for tomatoes. Cheese, we use ricotta or drained cottage cheese (with grated parmigiano) with an egg and herbs mixed in and grated mozzarella for the layers and on top. When I think of it, we also use a béchamel too. I know it is not the cheapest way to do it, but it does work really well. It is intended that I will freeze leftovers but there rarely are any.
Interesting to hear you mention cooking with olive oil. I was trained not to cook with it for most things (to clarify, anything that needs to reach a high temp, so you don't want it for searing meats etc), because of the low smoke point, especially extra virgin, which we were basically taught is strictly for dressings, vinaigrettes etc.
You do have to be careful about smoking it, but in this recipe the ground meat probably gets broken up quick enough to keep the heat down. It's generally fine for sauteing vegetables because they release lots of water. You lose some of the more delicate flavors when you get it hot, so don't waste the expensive stuff for cooking.
Oh, Musaka mentioned! Yeah, every country on the Balkans has a version of it :D The very basic version that my great-grandmother (from my mother's stories) would be just minced meat and potatoes. The way my mom makes it and I learned from her is to start with frying onions and carrots for a bit with added a bit of water to soften up the vegetables, then add the minced meat, after it starts to get color add the potatoes, fill it up with water, add seasoning and the tray goes in the oven. Then about 10 minutes from it being done we add the top, which is basically a mixture of 2 eggs and a cup of Bulgarian yogurt (ours is slightly more sour than the greek one), and then let that cook for the remaining 10 minutes. 22"45 - hmm, different recipes and slightly different ingredients, so I'm gonna go with both please :)
Bechamel is more commonly known as white sauce here in the U.S.A. It used to be one of the first things taught in school cooking classes. WW II rationing replaced butter with lard/shortening.
I use pre-sliced mozzarella instead of having to shredd a block. It doesn't have any of the extra additives that bagged shredded has, so it melts well straight out of the package.
At current exchange rate that pan of lasagna would cost around $19.40 AUD with the $12.60 of US priced ingredients . Remember there are 12 servings in the 13in x 9 in (330 mm x 230 mm) casserole dish.
I like what Vincenzo said at the end - it's about the thought process. I often make variations of stuff that looks amazing to me simply because I can't get certain ingredients easily in South Africa (especially for the Korean food I love making), and sometimes I need to also change out an ingredient because I don't eat something - like pork related products. If you think nicely, you could probably substitute items very effectively to try out some of these dishes and make them possible.
I grew up in a small town in western Canada that was blessed to have a Greek resteraunt run by an older couple origionally from Athens. Mousaka has been one of my absolute fav dishes since the day I first had it some 30 years ago
I used to use Grana Padano for almost everything about italian food ever since an italian friend of mine said that Grana is what italian people use instead of the lower-end Parmigiano Reggianos because those were still expensive for the name but according to my friend were not better. These days I can get a 150g slice of 30 months aged Parmigiano Reggiano for about 3-4€ at my local supermarket though and Grana is pretty much the same price these days, so...I did make that switch.
I use Mozzarella and Parmigiana. We stopped using those Cheese Slices and shred our cheese for Lasagna now it's so much better using shredded cheese. I did not know about using a Bechamel Sauce and using Celery and Carrots. I've been using just Garlic and Onions. I most definitely be trying it this way.
Parmigiano + Mozza on top, and between the pastas I put Sauce Mornay (Bechamel with cheese). Sometimes I deglaze the meat with red wine, it really adds something! Same with Moussaka.
Hello James! I love Pastitsio. Greek Lasagna. My recipe has raves. Please try! Ragout: one large vidalia onion puréed. Sweat with 1/2 cup good olive oil. Add 2 pounds beef and incorporate with onion. One can San Marzano tomato puree. 1 tbs pepper. 1 tbs salt. It should be smooth. Cook 35 min or so. Add 1/2 breadcrumbs. Set aside. Cook 2 pkg of bucatini or the larger Pastitsio noodle. Drain add 2 tbs butter 1/4 cup olive oil. Sprinkle with Kefalotiri 2 cups over noddles or 2 cups(Romano) set aside. Make beshamel add 1 cup of Kefalotiri or Romano cheese to sauce. Temper 6 egg yolks into beshamel. Salt and pepper. Assemble in hotel pan: 1st layer noodles, second layer minced beef. Third layer noodles. Fourth layer beshamel and sprinkle top with Romano. I add no nutmeg or cinnamon to my beshamel, but some do. Cook 375 1 hr. I love your channel. This amount definitely for a crowd of loved ones. It is delicious. Chef Lizaki
Fresh homemade pasta is sooo good. One of my favorites is the fresh ravioli my step dad makes around New Years (usually makes a couple hundred and freezes the extra).
I love cheese. For my lasagna I use seasoned ricotta like Josh but i add a bit of chopped fresh basil and mix it. Also I use a mix of mozzarella and grana padano between the layers and just mozzarella on top. Fantastic combination of flavour, I recomend to try 😁
This is one of the few recipes of Joshua that I’ve made, I sure enjoyed it! At the time I didn’t have parmigiano, but I definitely will next time! And even though I like my lasagna with ricotta, I’ll try with a béchamel too :)
I could make it that cheap, I make 16L of spaghetti sauce at a time (we’ll used to when the kids were home), find beef loin on sale, grind it yourself, on sale veggies, pasta is super cheap and if I find milk in the almost expired isle, I can make my own mozzarella with vinegar… Cooking is fun, it’s the key to bringing loved ones together, to chat and stay close and god forbid in emergency you can cook on any heat source and for any ingredients you may have, frozen, canned, pressure canned, dried, freeze dried and fresh if you have foraging skills. Have a great day @Chef James Makinson, I hope you and your loved ones are having a good start of the year here.. Also any possibility you could show us how to use the kitchen aid pasta roller attachment and how to start it, is 5 the thickest or thinnest setting, how many times do we have to put it through? My daughter’s bought me the attachment 4 years ago, I tried it once and it was a disaster and was afraid to do it again just to waste ingredients.. My daughters gave me a dehydrator for Christmas, I just dehydrated papaya and dragon fruit that I found in the almost not fresh produce shelf..lol
There is something very satisfying about Joshua's cooking, Vincenzo's "Italian Emotional observation and James polite explanation of it all. A trifecta of Fuyaaaaa !
It should be important to keep in mind that obviously Joshua is stating USD, which is generally less than AUD. In Australia, just looking at the Coles website (assuming you don't have the ingredients except salt ad pepper), Vegetable Oil (750mL) is $3.55; Plain Flour (we don't have AP Flour) is $1.40 for 1kg, eggs (6 pack is the smallest) is $3.75; Traditional Ricotta is $10.60 per kg; 1L milk is $1.60; pork mince is $9.90/kg; beef mince is $9.90/kg; he calls for yellow onions, closest I can find is brown onions and that's $0.70c per onion; garlic is $1.68/per garlic clove; thyme is $3.20 a packet; mozzarella (cheapest fresh) is $7.80; parmesan (cheapest fresh) is $11.40; crushed tomatoes is $1.40; tomato paste is $0.90c; fennel seeds is $2.90. All of those ingredients come to $22.13 per person here in Australia (cheapest ingredients found from one of the largest grocery stores in Australia) - well over the $1.19 per person (6 people).
I've rolled homemade pasta by hand when my machine dies whilst making it - so out came the rolling pin 😂 boy it was hard work. But I've done it a few more times and it never gets easier 😂. With bechamel sauce I infuse the milk with a little onion, white pepper and a small pinch of Nutmeg and Mace just to add a little flavour boost.
I have a cheap pasta machine, so I always make the pasta for my lasagna myself. Firstly, it tastes better fresh and secondly, I can easily cut the pasta sheets to cover my oven dish completely and lastly, the pasta sheets for lasagna are absolutely the easiest way to make fresh pasta. When it comes to the question of whether lasagne or moussaka tastes better, I actually think that my moussaka tastes better and for me personally I find it much more time-consuming to make because each ingredient (potatoes, eggplant, sauces) is prepared individually beforehand and I'll be honest, it's a battle with the eggplant every time. But I always think the end result is fantastic.
I'm Australian and yeah the restaurant prices have skyrocketed the past couple of years. Only a few years ago you could get a lasagne and salad for under $20. These days you'll get a lasagne with no sides for $35. The prices are so bad most people don't bother going out anymore. It's crazy.
I don't know if Vincenzo has it around his location, but from where I am in Australia the grocery stores sell bundles of the fresh vegetables for soffritto/mirepiox mixes for extremely cheap. It's the fresh, raw, whole vegetables in the produce section, they just pack them together for convenience. You have to prep them yourself, but it's cheaper that buying the individual ingredients. They also do this for other cuisines; like parsnips, potatoes, and baby carrots for british roasts, or combos like daikon, cabbage and wild japanese mushrooms for east asian dishes. Although, just thinking about it, my town is so multicultural that you need to know how to read 4 different languages just to know what shop sells what. So it's likely an outlier.
As someone who is on government aid in the US (SNAP, Section 8) I appreciate Joshua’s videos. I have been trying to get disability for over a year and was just denied from my hearing. (I’m appealing.). So I live on very little money. Sometimes I’ll splurge on ingredients but then I have to eat really cheap other days. So when he shows how much you can do with every little it gives people like me a goal to shoot for.
For lasagna i often use parmigiana/pecorino or some other good aged cheese(depends on whats available) and fresh mozzarella. Put the aged cheese in the bechamel sauce and the fresh mozzarella between the layers.
My cheese combo if I'm making a large amount (dinner party, to freeze...) of lasagna, I'll use Mozzarella, a locally sourced Pecorino (small farm near my hometown), bechamel, AND make my own basic cheese to mix in on top to brown (made the day before while making the fresh pasta). I've made my own Mozz and ricotta before as well. While good/better than store bought - it also consumes a lot of time where the 'basic' cheese doesn't. For a quick/cheap lasagna, I have no problem with just bechamel and mozz, and topped with parm or pecorino after baking.
Have to say that the Lasagna did look really great. I would eat it in a heartbeat!! But when we make it here at home, we make a ragu, fresh lasagna sheets, bechamel sauce with butter, flower (roux), milk and nutmeg. We usually always use parmigiano reggiano, mozzarella and sometime we add a bit of provolone in there as well. On top a layer of mozzarella with a light dusting of Parmigiano Reggiano, love it. We should make it more frequently, but making a lasagna for two, it's a bit of a phaff. Loved your video, mate and have yourself an absolutely wonderful rest of your day and enjoy your weekend!
Hey Frank! That does sound good! I need to get some more Parmigiano Reggiano and yes making it just for 2 is a bit of work but it saves you having to make lunch or dinner the next days! I hope you are doing well! I have been very busy studying for the driving license here!
I always use Parmigiano, sometimes with Mozzarella, but never Ricotta, always a bechamel. But I changed from pork and beef to just lamb (minced cheeks). It's really moreish. Moussaka is also a very good dish. The cinnamon goes so well with tomatoes and aubergines.
I'm so happy with my hand-cranked pasta machine, which set me back 20 bucks about 5 years ago, that I've never considered to upgrade it, although I use it more often than I've anticipated (a bit less than once per month). Granted, I've never used a more professional machine, I suspect there's little time and quality to gain and I enjoy the work step for relatively small batches (dough with 5-10 eggs).
I use mozzarella and parmesan on top of my lasagna. Usually, I get 2 balls in brine, slice them up and spread that out. Then I grate parmesan directly on top. I like the flavor and the way it looks in the end.
I think this video highlights the biggest reason why I enjoy your reactions and not Vincenzo's; any time you don't fully agree with a decision you will point it out as "the way I would do it is..", in a more constructive manner, whereas he will, before even seeing the final result, make an almost condescending "oh my god why is he (not) doing that how horrible", which I understand comes from a place of authenticity, but it also does kinda invalidate any cultural transformations that will inevitably (and fortunately) happen with food. I also understand that in his case, being "angry at how these foreigners make my national food" is kind of his type of humor, but I do feel it introduces a lot of elitism and gatekeeping in international cuisine, which I personally don't think is a good thing.
You may have noticed that, after all the talk about making your own lasagna noodles, when he’s assembling the lasagna, the noodles he is using look to be the dried commercial ones (with the crimped edges).
I'm glad that even Vincenzo agrees that the best bits of lasagna are those edge bits with just a little bit or burn or char to them lmao. My nan always made lasagna when the family got together over here in England and we'd fight over the corner pieces
Hello again from a very cold Alberta Canada.i hope this finds u warm and healthy.. i absolutely LOVE fresh pasta. I priced out a pasta machine.$50 CAD.thats not bad. but i am HORRIBLE with any dough.. and im feeling VERY intimidated. your the only chef ive ever had the chance to ask anything.i greatly appreciate anything u can tell me.thanks in advance. 🤗 💙
Ricotta, Bechamel, mozzarella and parmesano reggiano are all lovely. I've had them all together on a very cheesy lasagna with mushrooms, zucchini, and eggplant. I had a girlfriend who would make this vegetarian lasagna with lentil soup with a sofrito and hard boiled eggs in the soup. Absolutely lovely meal. She would sometimes substitute Farmer's cheese, which is like cottage cheese, for the ricotta.
Another great video James!!! Especially when Vincenzo is involved becomes hilarious!!! It's so nice to watch these kind of videos which are informative, instructional and entertaining at the same time. Indispensable note: When Vincenzo says ''come cazzo si chiama Chesterfi, Chester sauce'', i simply die laughing!!! Forget about Mykonos James. As far as it concerns me, i will never lay my foot on this damn island...40 euros for Mousaka!!! For God's sake...I have the feeling that Italians (i have lived in Italy for many years) and not only Vincenzo are a bit obsessed with parmigiano reggiano. You can use couple of different cheese options making lasagna, always with salty ones. I like Kerrygold or graviera (salty and tad spicy) and the flavor they give. As for extra virgin olive oil...If you ask any Mediterranean, he/she will respond to you: ''Why? Is there another kind of oil''? LOL.
i live in germany we have soupgreen( karrots,sellerie, leak sometimes pastinaken(rootvegetable) 2-3 € 500-800g i put it every time in bolonese or lasagne
I use typical Dutch Gouda cheese. This is what i grew up with, it's easily available, affordable, melts very nice and if you use an aged Gouda it will have a lot of flavor and even some spicy/nutty and salty notes like Parmigiano.
I use a mix of Parmesan, white cheddar and a little hard Feta cheese. The Feta you have to be careful with as goats cheese is naturally salty, so you have to change your seasoning to suit. I know my cheeses are not fully Italian, but the flavour is very nice!
I do not make lasagne very often. I usually make something I call Lazy Lasagne which is probably more akin to something Jack would make. But when I make the effort, I make a very good lasagne. I do use ricotta cheese, mixed with mozzarella and a little cheddar because I am from New York and I cannot eschew the cheddar. One time I didn't have enough ricotta so I threw in some cottage cheese and it was really very good. But my real secret is to throw a good sized pinch of nutmeg of all things in with my cheese! People always rave about my lasagne and ask why it is so good but yet so different. I learned this from one of those recipe books that sends you a few pages every month. I think it was Betty Crocker. They called it Lasagne Neopolitana and it was made without meat, which, you know, screw that, but to add a pinch of nutmeg..... It's my secret and it works. If you do a lasagne video I will look forward to watching it and getting some tips, but I do not have the time nor the inclination to make pasta myself. It is only a dollar or two.
I only use parmigiano for my lasagne. Bolognese ragu on the bottom, then at least three layers of pasta, ragu, bechamel, and parmigiano, topped with pasatta and parmigiano. That's it. I used to make a more complicated lasagne, but I discovered I much prefer this more simple version.
Love these videos that are like "It's only 62¢ a portion!" and then proceed to list out prices as though you can buy only the amount of an ingredient that you're going to use.
That lasagna looks terrific. It would be cool, and a lot of work I know, to make two lasagnas. One with the more expensive choice of ingredients and one with the less expensive option. Then see what the taste difference is.
speaking as a grocery worker, if you have a decent relationship with your local dairyman you can get 4L or 1 gallon jugs of milk that are at or close to expiration date that have been marked down as much as 50%, I suggest people take advantage of that since riccotta is an easy to make cheese, and whey is a good pasta additive.
The reaction of the reaction. I think its time for us together to react to a video
With Mr James’ reservedness and Mr Vincenzo’s “Italianness” (If my Sister in Law is anything to go by) then that would be the mother of All reaction videos! Mr James…MAKE…THIS…HAPPEN! Also, stay classy, Mr Vincenzo…
Do it!
Yes!
Ja, i would loooove to See this, Vincenzo!
Vincenzo would have a heart attack if he saw my mom’s recipe for lasagna. She doesn’t use béchamel or ricotta. She uses cottage cheese.
Yuk... 😂
A chef reacting to a chef reacting to a chef. What a time to be alive! 😂 Stay classy, Mr James…
A chef reacting to a comedian reacting to Josh :)
Chefception.
@@ChefJamesMakinson(:
just wait until a video comes out that is a food critic reacting to a chef, reacting to a chef, reacting to a chef reacting to chefs reacting to a steak specialist.
to clear up the confusion, i mean Uncle Roger reacting to joshua weisman reacting to vincenzo reacting to james makinson reacting to brian and frenchie reacting to Guga.
inception at it's finest.
On paper it sounds ridiculous, but I live watching it. It’s kinda like watching a video you’ve already watched to see what your friend thinks, but twice. Right?
Before anyone starts hating on James reacting to other cooking videos i recommend you to check HIS cooking videos.
So far he is the only people who not making them mediocre like everyone others do. He didn't smashing ingridients to the desk, didn't spank the meat, didn't make stupid meaningless gasping sounds or gestures, he didn't make his cooking videos out like an ASMR...
His videos are original, he got his own style and i much MUCH more prefer him over every famous cook youtuber.
Keep it up my friend, love and respect from Hungary!
Plus he uses his reaction to add extra information and professional insight that can and do help people be better cooks
@@mkphrakleio exactly!
Thank you so much!! I want to make more recipe videos this year!
Chef, here’s a suggestion. How about watching videos of recipes you’ve never tasted and then recreate them to see how they taste for us to watch? I don’t know about your other viewers, but I would love something like this to be a series.
Good idea!
a good thing to try
That could be a very good idea! it would have to be mostly Asian dishes
@@ChefJamesMakinson Why don't you start with masala dosas then?
@@ChefJamesMakinson You then wonder if Uncle Roger and Auntie Liz decide to see how well you cook it then :)
To be fair it doesn't look like a massive portion, which is probably how it comes to $1 per person. Maybe it's just me but when I make lasagna I want a piece bigger than that lol
It was a bit small
wait, you sharing the tray with someone? I would just get a fork or spoon and just sit in front of my computer like the fat guy i am
even 2 slices put together would be just $2 i really like that josh shows these cheaper aimed videos, yes somtimes i go all out on buying great products but day to day i need my food to cost £2-4 per meal also would love you to make this and compare with your verision @@ChefJamesMakinson
@@ChefJamesMakinson Not much smaller than what you'd get in restaurants here in Germany though.
@jameszacknehring787😏😏😏
it was joshua's video that made me make my own lasagna.
I pretty much did all the same things except I followed vincenzo's recipe for the ragu. So it had the carrots and celery, and cooked for hours and hours. I made a huge pot of it, and canned the excess in ball jars.
Be sure to check out our review of Gordon Making Carbonara! :) ua-cam.com/video/3YAvMIt-bZI/v-deo.html
15:48... did Joshua used store bought pasta and faked it by saying handmade 😱😱😱😱... and you have Japanese knives... James how rich are you huh 🤨🤣
@@arun_kumar0 Japanese knives are just as expensive German ones.
@@sasmetz56 ya... but japanese's knives look amazing, have a perfect balance and strength to it(you can literally feel it) and their sharpness doesn't fade away so quickly, even if you cut a bone with it... the only downside to it is you need a separate sharpening stone and heck lot of patience to sharpen it or else you will ruin the blade... that's another headache...
@@arun_kumar0 100% but at least here, German knives are the same price. So I was just saying.
No worries, I'm Japanese. The cost really depends on where you are. Willing to bet there's a hike in price outside of Japan.
He's using the packet pasta to build the lasagne lol.
He showed at the start that the straight pasta was what he made and the textured edge pasta was the bought ones.
Not it's home made ones he just added those corners
He curled all the strips? Both sides? That’s packet.
The cost of your "free" time can't be overlooked. Shopping, prep, cooking, and cleanup.
True
This could definitely very well take several hours to do when you put all that together in consideration & having to find the appropriate timeframe to slot it in during the day if you live a busy life.
@@Enthusiastic-Trainspotter-BNE Yes, that is how lasagna is. It is a time consuming process if you want to do it correctly. This is "cheaper", not "faster". The fact it takes just as long as expensive lasagna is totally irrelevant.
@@THENAMEISQUICKMAN the original post was talking about "free time"you know, I never spoke anything about the price in my reply
Asmon really nailed this in his steak video
Vincenzo is a really nice dude too, my girls cooked with him one time at the local shopping centre when he was there in the school holidays. They both loved him and said how cool he was.
Stuff is expensive in Australia man, it’s $10 for a McDonalds happy meal now. We get gouged on everything. We live in a town close to vineyards and because the Sydney crowd invades the vineyards every holidays and weekends, the restaurants out there are insanely expensive. One restaurant that I used to go to for work was so exclusive it had a helicopter landing pad outside. All the celebs would go there when there was events in the vineyards.
its not that expensive tho. vincenzo said that a small block of mozzarella is like 8 bucks, hes wrong. 125g of fresh mozzarella is $3aud, which is equivalent to $2usd
@@L83467 I’d argue it’s somewhat locational. Woolies near us occasionally has 200g fresh mozzarella and it’s $6 or $7.
@@thesausage351 nah it's not locational, my local woolies also has the mozzarella you're talking about (the one in the tub), the $3 one is by the same brand (la casa del formaggio) but it's in a packet
@@L83467 definitely not in our Woolies as I’ve looked for cheap mozzarella before when we were making pizza
@@thesausage351 Hence why both the big Coles and Woolies need to be clipped over the ear. They do price and stock things depending on the demographic of the suburb, further gentrifying areas for property developers. .. Don't get me started on what they did to the dairy industry...
Also, something else to notice, if you take a bottle of olive oil, bag of salt..etc and divide the whole containers per servings/portions, let’s say a box of salt is $1.45 and you get about a .02 cent total, the same can be said for olive oil is $8 for 750ml, which would come out to about $0.16 per serving, so it is entirely doable to make a $1 per serving lasagna..
This from the person who hates numbers and number’s hate her..lol
We work with what we have and we make the best of it.
This was how I was able to survive and thrived with being bed bound for 5 years with only a full time min wage income coming into the house and this being in Canada no less..
in Germany we have a combination of veggies called "Suppengrün"(soup green), which is usually carrot, celery root, parsley root and leek sold in a bundle. it works wonders as a base for any soup. I used it for bolognese as well. Mine cooks for at least an hour though, don't know if I like that quick ragout
Interesting!
We have the same in Czech rep. and Slovakia but today is cheaper to buy them separately.
@@ChefJamesMakinson In Poland it's also sold together under the name "włoszczyzna" - which could be translated to "the italian stuff" ;)
My family indeed uses them as a soup base, sauce base... A lot of dishes begin with "fry diced onion/leek, add diced garlic, then grated carrots and celery root and/or parsley root".
I really don't like those bundles. You basically pay too much for old vegetables.
A note on fresh vs dried pasta: fresh pasta is great for certain dishes like lasagna where the dish needs a fresh noodle. However, for most pasta dishes from Italy, you will need very high quality bronze extruded, slow dried pasta. There are many instances where dried pasta is superior to fresh but it is all highly situational.
You just committed an Italian culinary sin.... added the word "noodle" when talking about pasta!!
@@A_DR I’m italian and my family says noodles when speaking in english
@connorwinton4343 North American I presume? No where else do Italians say noodles when referring to pasta
@@A_DR my grandparents are literally from puglia
@connorwinton4343 you missed the question and the point. Wasn't asking how you're italian. Regardless, only North Americans refer to pasta as noodles.
I can't wait til i see Uncle Roger reacting to Jamie Oliver, reacting to Gordon Ramsey, reacting to Jack, reacting to James, reacting to Vincent, reacting to Joshua.
The face of James when Joshua is cutting the lasaGa with a Japanese knife was priceless!
🤣🤣
Lasagna.
@@arielabril1981 Garfield
I know,i was just pointing how to write the name of the dish.@@lachlank.8270
I use domestic parmesan cheese for lasagna.
My version is a thinner sauce because I don't cook the whole wheat noodles. It turns out well. I do wrap the foil around the entire pan before putting it in the oven. At home, I usually do meatless. For the soup kitchen and homeless shelters, I do just lean ground beef. I've also made it from venison or elk in the past. That depends on the Sheriff's department because they often bring us road kill meat.
At home I grate the cheeses. At work then I use all pregrated mozzarella because I have to get it done within the alloted time. For this reason, I use garlic powder and dried Italian seasoning. The Costco brand is the best quality and within the soup kitchen's budget. At home, I either use the dried herbs that I harvested or fresh, depending on the time of year.
I do grate some carrots and put it into the sauce to pack more vitamins into the overall dish. Especially important for the soup kitchen and homeless shelters. I've seen a lot of very malnourished people come to eat at the soup kitchen.
I can say this.... Whenever I made lasagna at work, I always had folks wanting seconds or rave about the food. Its nice to put some cheer into these people's lives.
Love your videos, thanks for your great content 😊
Glad you like them!
My wife and I have made this specific Josh's lasagna. Up to that point we'd only had pretty terrible lasagnas--mostly soup affairs with no real focused taste. We made the pasta by hand, and at the end pleasantly surprised by the result. Try and see what you think Chef James; I'll be interested to hear your additional insights.
Glad to see Chef James is up to 250k subs, have been watching since 75k subs or so, glad to see the channel growing :).
Thank you! It has been a good year!
If he's confused by ricotta, wait until he finds out that many parts of the U.S. use cottage cheese in their lasagna
Yes that’s what my mom always used! ( and it was VERY good .But years ago I worked for a family who wanted me to use ricotta and I do prefer that.
I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the standard of using ricotta and the standard of substituting cottage cheese for it in the US both come from _The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook_ in it's classic red plaid cover design.
🤣
My mum usually uses cottage cheese in her's, though I will sometimes mix half cottage cheese half ricotta for mine to make it a little dryer and it tastes great :)
My last lasagna cost about $40 Canadian (for entire pan) but I went big on flavor and non-standard... 6 de-cased and browned chorizo to make meat sauce (basically a Bolognaise of sorts) - 500g ricotta, 500g mozza for topping, parm reggiano sprinkled in layers. Fresh pasta sheets for the lasagna (kinda pricy part) - Spicy, cheesy and oh so delectable
i never actually pre-cook the pasta though.... fresh cooks very quickly and wanted some bite. As long as your sauce has enough moisture to cook/absorb
I live in Los Angeles County, California. Following prices are at Walmart: Ground Pork is $7.98 for 2 lbs, so half for a pound. Ground beef is $4.97 lb. The smallest container of ricotta is 15oz, Great Value (Walmart store brand), which costs $2.52 per container. The smallest block of mozzarella at the same store is 8oz for $2 or 16oz for $2.98. An 8oz wedge of Belgioso parmesana is $5.14. $19.64 divided by 12 servings=$1.64...now that is NOT counting the pasta or the tomato sauce. Here, that dish would NOT be made for the price he is quoting. My food costs have gone up between 200% and 300% in the past year, and I'm a single senior citizen who is a home cook and uses veges from the garden. Food costs are ridiculous. (One more thought I would like to add...while his lasagna looks good, it is more like a pasta casserole with a little bit of filling inbetween the noodles. I would expect more from a restaurant and certainly would not feed that chintzy quantity of fillings to my family. What he is doing is shortcutting the filling to fit the price point he wanted to achieve, but didn't.)
yeah the price is bullshit
I love Vincenzo's intensity, and the inputs from Chef Jaime are the best!!!
Can´t wait for both to Collab cooking something, Vincenzo makes italy tours every now and then maybe you guys can coordinate while he's in italy or him to deviate a bit to Spain? I hope it is done!
chef James you 100% should make it
seconded
I will!
What a breath of fresh air seeing a cooking video where folk arent losing their minds over how bad someone is destroying a dish. Looks delicious.
I always use a good English cheddar, yeah it's not traditional but you can't beat it on a lasagne
a sharp cheddar?
@@ChefJamesMakinson I guess that's the American name for it. I'd call it Mature. But yeah, works well and it's what I've always used.
Josh is out here doing the good work! ...He's doing like the WolfePIt channel and showing us you can still make good quality meals for your family, even if you're on a tight budget.
When vincenzo
said that the Lasagna costs $35 in australia 😢
Yeah I know haha
35 AUD comes out to about 23 USD
@@littlewishy6432 bro its still a lot of money for lasagna
I live in Greece and we have a lot of different types of cheeses and also very similar ones to parmigiano regiano such as Graviera.Kefalotyri is also a dry cheese but not as dry as Graviera.So whenever we have lasagna or similar baked goods in my household,we opt to use local products/greek products as they come cheaper than imported ones.And t he result is still tasty and close to the original version!
I like how Vincenzo you can tell he really isn’t being hard on the cooks and he just wants to see them do their best. He just has a great demeanor
Both dishes are amazing in its ow right, the eggplant is something that I grew to love, so moussaka wil always get that extra bit in my heart.
Moussaka and lasagna. I love them both. I do the moussaka with a bechemel on top, but this video blew my mind with the bechemel on an Italian lasagna. How come I’ve never heard of this.
I use 3 cheeses: mozzarella, Italian parmesan (the word "parmesan" is protected here, unlike in the US) and mascarpone instead of ricotta. Mascarpone gives the lasagna a really creamy texture and taste.
Breaking the Pasta was always my job as a little kid. whenever my mom made Lasagna, trust me I LOVED breaking it and eating the little bits that where left.
I just use a Hillview 1kg block of Tasty Cheddar for everything. It melts well, has a lovely creamy flavour a bit like Colby, and if I buy fancy cheeses I just end up wasting cheese and feeling bad about it... Took me a long time to find a cheese that I was happy doing absolutely everything with, but this one's been a success.
I love your cooking abilities James, .... I really enjoy your interaction with other chefs,....you have a new subscription..... Thank you.
Thank you so much!
Those 40 euro slices of mousaka are definitely tourist traps. I can make an entire tray for 40 euro lmao. But yeah it is way more involved and better than lasagna cause instead of the pasta sheets you have deep fried eggplants and potatoes, and we put fried zuccini in our family recipe too, and mushrooms in the meat sauce. It's to die for. And you just might with all that oil. XD
Anxiously awaiting your review of this lasagna recipe brotha. Love how the cooking community is growing together, I don't see as much of the crossover stuff in other videos. I'd love to see you, Vicenzo, and Josh get together on a lasagna video and then share food knowledge and best practices. I watch Guga, Uncle Roger, and Chef Brian Tso with Frenchie. Man world I love to see you all jump in one one big cookout. Now that would break the Internet but fill our souls with so much Yuminess! Let's goooooo! Great video my brotha, keep em coming!
I love fresh pasta but settle for dried when making lasagna. Usually, I will use no boil sheets and it comes out really good. the texture strikes me as similar to fresh.
For sauce, it depends on what I have on hand. Aromatics always include onions and if I have one, a yellow/orange bell pepper. I don't usually do a bolognese. For meat, beef dominates, but I try to use half/half with pork. We use some DOP San Marzano for tomatoes.
Cheese, we use ricotta or drained cottage cheese (with grated parmigiano) with an egg and herbs mixed in and grated mozzarella for the layers and on top. When I think of it, we also use a béchamel too.
I know it is not the cheapest way to do it, but it does work really well. It is intended that I will freeze leftovers but there rarely are any.
Interesting to hear you mention cooking with olive oil. I was trained not to cook with it for most things (to clarify, anything that needs to reach a high temp, so you don't want it for searing meats etc), because of the low smoke point, especially extra virgin, which we were basically taught is strictly for dressings, vinaigrettes etc.
You do have to be careful about smoking it, but in this recipe the ground meat probably gets broken up quick enough to keep the heat down. It's generally fine for sauteing vegetables because they release lots of water. You lose some of the more delicate flavors when you get it hot, so don't waste the expensive stuff for cooking.
Oh, Musaka mentioned! Yeah, every country on the Balkans has a version of it :D
The very basic version that my great-grandmother (from my mother's stories) would be just minced meat and potatoes. The way my mom makes it and I learned from her is to start with frying onions and carrots for a bit with added a bit of water to soften up the vegetables, then add the minced meat, after it starts to get color add the potatoes, fill it up with water, add seasoning and the tray goes in the oven. Then about 10 minutes from it being done we add the top, which is basically a mixture of 2 eggs and a cup of Bulgarian yogurt (ours is slightly more sour than the greek one), and then let that cook for the remaining 10 minutes.
22"45 - hmm, different recipes and slightly different ingredients, so I'm gonna go with both please :)
Bechamel is more commonly known as white sauce here in the U.S.A. It used to be one of the first things taught in school cooking classes. WW II rationing replaced butter with lard/shortening.
I use pre-sliced mozzarella instead of having to shredd a block. It doesn't have any of the extra additives that bagged shredded has, so it melts well straight out of the package.
What Josh is saying makes sense. Packages of pasta cost dollars, but flour and eggs cost pennies.
Can't wait for a video of you trying this lasagna
At current exchange rate that pan of lasagna would cost around $19.40 AUD with the $12.60 of US priced ingredients . Remember there are 12 servings in the 13in x 9 in (330 mm x 230 mm) casserole dish.
Not for me, I live alone and cook for only me. that pan would last me four servings.
I like what Vincenzo said at the end - it's about the thought process. I often make variations of stuff that looks amazing to me simply because I can't get certain ingredients easily in South Africa (especially for the Korean food I love making), and sometimes I need to also change out an ingredient because I don't eat something - like pork related products. If you think nicely, you could probably substitute items very effectively to try out some of these dishes and make them possible.
I grew up in a small town in western Canada that was blessed to have a Greek resteraunt run by an older couple origionally from Athens. Mousaka has been one of my absolute fav dishes since the day I first had it some 30 years ago
I used to use Grana Padano for almost everything about italian food ever since an italian friend of mine said that Grana is what italian people use instead of the lower-end Parmigiano Reggianos because those were still expensive for the name but according to my friend were not better.
These days I can get a 150g slice of 30 months aged Parmigiano Reggiano for about 3-4€ at my local supermarket though and Grana is pretty much the same price these days, so...I did make that switch.
Stumbled across your channel, James. It's so lovely, educational and soothing.
Thank you
Glad you enjoy it!
I use Mozzarella and Parmigiana.
We stopped using those Cheese Slices and shred our cheese for Lasagna now it's so much better using shredded cheese.
I did not know about using a Bechamel Sauce and using Celery and Carrots.
I've been using just Garlic and Onions.
I most definitely be trying it this way.
Parmigiano + Mozza on top, and between the pastas I put Sauce Mornay (Bechamel with cheese). Sometimes I deglaze the meat with red wine, it really adds something! Same with Moussaka.
Hello James! I love Pastitsio. Greek Lasagna. My recipe has raves. Please try!
Ragout: one large vidalia onion puréed. Sweat with 1/2 cup good olive oil. Add 2 pounds beef and incorporate with onion. One can San Marzano tomato puree. 1 tbs pepper. 1 tbs salt. It should be smooth. Cook 35 min or so. Add 1/2 breadcrumbs. Set aside. Cook 2 pkg of bucatini or the larger Pastitsio noodle. Drain add 2 tbs butter 1/4 cup olive oil. Sprinkle with Kefalotiri 2 cups over noddles or 2 cups(Romano) set aside. Make beshamel add 1 cup of Kefalotiri or Romano cheese to sauce. Temper 6 egg yolks into beshamel. Salt and pepper. Assemble in hotel pan: 1st layer noodles, second layer minced beef. Third layer noodles. Fourth layer beshamel and sprinkle top with Romano. I add no nutmeg or cinnamon to my beshamel, but some do. Cook 375 1 hr. I love your channel. This amount definitely for a crowd of loved ones. It is delicious. Chef Lizaki
Fresh homemade pasta is sooo good. One of my favorites is the fresh ravioli my step dad makes around New Years (usually makes a couple hundred and freezes the extra).
I'm so happy you're reacting to Vincenzo! Love both of you!
Thank you!
I love cheese. For my lasagna I use seasoned ricotta like Josh but i add a bit of chopped fresh basil and mix it. Also I use a mix of mozzarella and grana padano between the layers and just mozzarella on top. Fantastic combination of flavour, I recomend to try 😁
This is one of the few recipes of Joshua that I’ve made, I sure enjoyed it! At the time I didn’t have parmigiano, but I definitely will next time! And even though I like my lasagna with ricotta, I’ll try with a béchamel too :)
Great how the channel developed; happy for you, Chef James! Great work. ;)
Thank you so much!!
I could make it that cheap, I make 16L of spaghetti sauce at a time (we’ll used to when the kids were home), find beef loin on sale, grind it yourself, on sale veggies, pasta is super cheap and if I find milk in the almost expired isle, I can make my own mozzarella with vinegar…
Cooking is fun, it’s the key to bringing loved ones together, to chat and stay close and god forbid in emergency you can cook on any heat source and for any ingredients you may have, frozen, canned, pressure canned, dried, freeze dried and fresh if you have foraging skills.
Have a great day @Chef James Makinson, I hope you and your loved ones are having a good start of the year here..
Also any possibility you could show us how to use the kitchen aid pasta roller attachment and how to start it, is 5 the thickest or thinnest setting, how many times do we have to put it through? My daughter’s bought me the attachment 4 years ago, I tried it once and it was a disaster and was afraid to do it again just to waste ingredients..
My daughters gave me a dehydrator for Christmas, I just dehydrated papaya and dragon fruit that I found in the almost not fresh produce shelf..lol
There is something very satisfying about Joshua's cooking, Vincenzo's "Italian Emotional observation and James polite explanation of it all. A trifecta of Fuyaaaaa !
🤣
I love that gino KNOWS his accent will make people laugh depending on what words he says and that he plays to that 😂 I love Gino
😂
My favourite cheese : goat cheese with blueberries, Swiss, Blue, cheddar, Brie,
It should be important to keep in mind that obviously Joshua is stating USD, which is generally less than AUD. In Australia, just looking at the Coles website (assuming you don't have the ingredients except salt ad pepper), Vegetable Oil (750mL) is $3.55; Plain Flour (we don't have AP Flour) is $1.40 for 1kg, eggs (6 pack is the smallest) is $3.75; Traditional Ricotta is $10.60 per kg; 1L milk is $1.60; pork mince is $9.90/kg; beef mince is $9.90/kg; he calls for yellow onions, closest I can find is brown onions and that's $0.70c per onion; garlic is $1.68/per garlic clove; thyme is $3.20 a packet; mozzarella (cheapest fresh) is $7.80; parmesan (cheapest fresh) is $11.40; crushed tomatoes is $1.40; tomato paste is $0.90c; fennel seeds is $2.90. All of those ingredients come to $22.13 per person here in Australia (cheapest ingredients found from one of the largest grocery stores in Australia) - well over the $1.19 per person (6 people).
I've rolled homemade pasta by hand when my machine dies whilst making it - so out came the rolling pin 😂 boy it was hard work. But I've done it a few more times and it never gets easier 😂. With bechamel sauce I infuse the milk with a little onion, white pepper and a small pinch of Nutmeg and Mace just to add a little flavour boost.
I have a cheap pasta machine, so I always make the pasta for my lasagna myself. Firstly, it tastes better fresh and secondly, I can easily cut the pasta sheets to cover my oven dish completely and lastly, the pasta sheets for lasagna are absolutely the easiest way to make fresh pasta.
When it comes to the question of whether lasagne or moussaka tastes better, I actually think that my moussaka tastes better and for me personally I find it much more time-consuming to make because each ingredient (potatoes, eggplant, sauces) is prepared individually beforehand and I'll be honest, it's a battle with the eggplant every time. But I always think the end result is fantastic.
I'm Australian and yeah the restaurant prices have skyrocketed the past couple of years. Only a few years ago you could get a lasagne and salad for under $20. These days you'll get a lasagne with no sides for $35. The prices are so bad most people don't bother going out anymore. It's crazy.
I don't know if Vincenzo has it around his location, but from where I am in Australia the grocery stores sell bundles of the fresh vegetables for soffritto/mirepiox mixes for extremely cheap. It's the fresh, raw, whole vegetables in the produce section, they just pack them together for convenience. You have to prep them yourself, but it's cheaper that buying the individual ingredients. They also do this for other cuisines; like parsnips, potatoes, and baby carrots for british roasts, or combos like daikon, cabbage and wild japanese mushrooms for east asian dishes.
Although, just thinking about it, my town is so multicultural that you need to know how to read 4 different languages just to know what shop sells what. So it's likely an outlier.
I often substitute Parmigiano Reggiano with Grana Padano. It is almost twice as cheap here
As someone who is on government aid in the US (SNAP, Section 8) I appreciate Joshua’s videos. I have been trying to get disability for over a year and was just denied from my hearing. (I’m appealing.). So I live on very little money. Sometimes I’ll splurge on ingredients but then I have to eat really cheap other days. So when he shows how much you can do with every little it gives people like me a goal to shoot for.
I can only imagine how expensive it is back home.
For lasagna i often use parmigiana/pecorino or some other good aged cheese(depends on whats available) and fresh mozzarella. Put the aged cheese in the bechamel sauce and the fresh mozzarella between the layers.
My cheese combo if I'm making a large amount (dinner party, to freeze...) of lasagna, I'll use Mozzarella, a locally sourced Pecorino (small farm near my hometown), bechamel, AND make my own basic cheese to mix in on top to brown (made the day before while making the fresh pasta). I've made my own Mozz and ricotta before as well. While good/better than store bought - it also consumes a lot of time where the 'basic' cheese doesn't. For a quick/cheap lasagna, I have no problem with just bechamel and mozz, and topped with parm or pecorino after baking.
Have to say that the Lasagna did look really great. I would eat it in a heartbeat!! But when we make it here at home, we make a ragu, fresh lasagna sheets, bechamel sauce with butter, flower (roux), milk and nutmeg. We usually always use parmigiano reggiano, mozzarella and sometime we add a bit of provolone in there as well. On top a layer of mozzarella with a light dusting of Parmigiano Reggiano, love it. We should make it more frequently, but making a lasagna for two, it's a bit of a phaff. Loved your video, mate and have yourself an absolutely wonderful rest of your day and enjoy your weekend!
Hey Frank! That does sound good! I need to get some more Parmigiano Reggiano and yes making it just for 2 is a bit of work but it saves you having to make lunch or dinner the next days! I hope you are doing well! I have been very busy studying for the driving license here!
We need to talk about the stock footage of the person chopping herbs cause that broke me
Hahaha 🤣
I do not have any Italian witnesses so I used very mature white cheddar. :)
I always use Parmigiano, sometimes with Mozzarella, but never Ricotta, always a bechamel. But I changed from pork and beef to just lamb (minced cheeks). It's really moreish. Moussaka is also a very good dish. The cinnamon goes so well with tomatoes and aubergines.
I'm so happy with my hand-cranked pasta machine, which set me back 20 bucks about 5 years ago, that I've never considered to upgrade it, although I use it more often than I've anticipated (a bit less than once per month).
Granted, I've never used a more professional machine, I suspect there's little time and quality to gain and I enjoy the work step for relatively small batches (dough with 5-10 eggs).
I use mozzarella and parmesan on top of my lasagna. Usually, I get 2 balls in brine, slice them up and spread that out. Then I grate parmesan directly on top. I like the flavor and the way it looks in the end.
I think this video highlights the biggest reason why I enjoy your reactions and not Vincenzo's; any time you don't fully agree with a decision you will point it out as "the way I would do it is..", in a more constructive manner, whereas he will, before even seeing the final result, make an almost condescending "oh my god why is he (not) doing that how horrible", which I understand comes from a place of authenticity, but it also does kinda invalidate any cultural transformations that will inevitably (and fortunately) happen with food.
I also understand that in his case, being "angry at how these foreigners make my national food" is kind of his type of humor, but I do feel it introduces a lot of elitism and gatekeeping in international cuisine, which I personally don't think is a good thing.
You may have noticed that, after all the talk about making your own lasagna noodles, when he’s assembling the lasagna, the noodles he is using look to be the dried commercial ones (with the crimped edges).
I'm glad that even Vincenzo agrees that the best bits of lasagna are those edge bits with just a little bit or burn or char to them lmao. My nan always made lasagna when the family got together over here in England and we'd fight over the corner pieces
“If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike”
I still loose my shit every time 😂
😂😂
Yeah, we need that collab between the two of you
Hello again from a very cold Alberta Canada.i hope this finds u warm and healthy.. i absolutely LOVE fresh pasta. I priced out a pasta machine.$50 CAD.thats not bad. but i am HORRIBLE with any dough.. and im feeling VERY intimidated. your the only chef ive ever had the chance to ask anything.i greatly appreciate anything u can tell me.thanks in advance. 🤗 💙
Ricotta, Bechamel, mozzarella and parmesano reggiano are all lovely. I've had them all together on a very cheesy lasagna with mushrooms, zucchini, and eggplant.
I had a girlfriend who would make this vegetarian lasagna with lentil soup with a sofrito and hard boiled eggs in the soup. Absolutely lovely meal. She would sometimes substitute Farmer's cheese, which is like cottage cheese, for the ricotta.
In our ramen kitchen, we track the Dashi we use by milliliters per bowl, but we have it made in 10Ls at a time.
Another great video James!!! Especially when Vincenzo is involved becomes hilarious!!! It's so nice to watch these kind of videos which are informative, instructional and entertaining at the same time. Indispensable note: When Vincenzo says ''come cazzo si chiama Chesterfi, Chester sauce'', i simply die laughing!!! Forget about Mykonos James. As far as it concerns me, i will never lay my foot on this damn island...40 euros for Mousaka!!! For God's sake...I have the feeling that Italians (i have lived in Italy for many years) and not only Vincenzo are a bit obsessed with parmigiano reggiano. You can use couple of different cheese options making lasagna, always with salty ones. I like Kerrygold or graviera (salty and tad spicy) and the flavor they give. As for extra virgin olive oil...If you ask any Mediterranean, he/she will respond to you: ''Why? Is there another kind of oil''? LOL.
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11:40 how convenient to showcase Vincenzo's Bolognese video :D
Wicked Review of a Review! Great vid. Thanks James! Now YOU make it!!! Lasaga time!!
Thank you!
i live in germany we have soupgreen( karrots,sellerie, leak sometimes pastinaken(rootvegetable) 2-3 € 500-800g
i put it every time in bolonese or lasagne
I use typical Dutch Gouda cheese. This is what i grew up with, it's easily available, affordable, melts very nice and if you use an aged Gouda it will have a lot of flavor and even some spicy/nutty and salty notes like Parmigiano.
I use a mix of Parmesan, white cheddar and a little hard Feta cheese. The Feta you have to be careful with as goats cheese is naturally salty, so you have to change your seasoning to suit. I know my cheeses are not fully Italian, but the flavour is very nice!
Hook line and sinker at 20:14 , i am willing to wait for it! It will be one of those videos ill be drooling over while im eating as well. lmao
16:34 I go by the 4321 rule; 4 layers sauce, 3 layers noodles, 2 layers bechemel/ricotta mixture, 1 layer mozzarella (sauce/noodles/ricotta/sauce/noodles/ricotta/sauce/noodles/sauce/mozzarella)
I do not make lasagne very often. I usually make something I call Lazy Lasagne which is probably more akin to something Jack would make. But when I make the effort, I make a very good lasagne. I do use ricotta cheese, mixed with mozzarella and a little cheddar because I am from New York and I cannot eschew the cheddar. One time I didn't have enough ricotta so I threw in some cottage cheese and it was really very good. But my real secret is to throw a good sized pinch of nutmeg of all things in with my cheese! People always rave about my lasagne and ask why it is so good but yet so different. I learned this from one of those recipe books that sends you a few pages every month. I think it was Betty Crocker. They called it Lasagne Neopolitana and it was made without meat, which, you know, screw that, but to add a pinch of nutmeg..... It's my secret and it works.
If you do a lasagne video I will look forward to watching it and getting some tips, but I do not have the time nor the inclination to make pasta myself. It is only a dollar or two.
then I will make a lasagne video
I only use parmigiano for my lasagne. Bolognese ragu on the bottom, then at least three layers of pasta, ragu, bechamel, and parmigiano, topped with pasatta and parmigiano. That's it. I used to make a more complicated lasagne, but I discovered I much prefer this more simple version.
Love these videos that are like "It's only 62¢ a portion!" and then proceed to list out prices as though you can buy only the amount of an ingredient that you're going to use.
That lasagna looks terrific. It would be cool, and a lot of work I know, to make two lasagnas. One with the more expensive choice of ingredients and one with the less expensive option. Then see what the taste difference is.
he did do good!
I’m drooling! That looks incredible!
speaking as a grocery worker, if you have a decent relationship with your local dairyman you can get 4L or 1 gallon jugs of milk that are at or close to expiration date that have been marked down as much as 50%, I suggest people take advantage of that since riccotta is an easy to make cheese, and whey is a good pasta additive.