How to Make 24-Layer Lasagna

Recently we've been all about the layers. We've shown you how to make crispy thousand-layer French fries, and now we're back with an Italian comfort food favourite, the multilayered baked pasta dish of dreams - lasagna, stacking up a deeply satisfying 24 layers.

That's right, while there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to lasagna, most are built with a minimum of three layers, and some extend to four.

As usual, the team at ChefSteps have managed to defy convention, taking their lasagne recipe up a gear, going for a generous tray bake of a dozen layers of homemade egg pasta and a dozen layers of spinach and basil filling.

And it doesn't stop there. Once baked, they chill their lasagne whole, ready for a final delicious twist: cutting portion sized slices, which they then sear until brown and crispy in a hot pan, meaning you get those delicious crispy bits in every bite.

How to make 24-layer lasagna

Watch and learn as Grant at ChefSteps shows how to take your lasagne up a gear by making it multilayered. He starts from scratch, first by making thin pasta sheets out of fresh egg pasta dough, blanching fresh spinach and basil leaves for the filling, whisking up a creamy béchamel sauce, blending up an easy tomato sauce, and grinding mozzarella and Parmigiano to maximise taste and integrity. Then it's a case of layering up to 24, baking and chilling.

By slicing the chilled lasagna and searing in a hot pan, all those sought-after crispy, crunchy, best bits of the lasagna can be found in every bite - genius.

Italian chef Massimo Bottura is all about the crunchy part of the lasagna. Find out how to make lasagna his way:

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Watch Massimo Bottura Make Lasagna His Way

Watch Massimo Bottura make his famous 'The Crunchy Part of the Lasagna' dish in this hypnotic short video.

Think 24 layers is something, then check out this 100 layer lasagna from the team at Tasty:

Or, if you're something of a lasagna traditionalist, you will want to see how it's really done in this recipe from the late Maria at Pasta Grannies, who was still baking her green lasagna layered with a pork ragù and béchamel sauce, aged 90.