Baklava Lasagna – Baklasagna!
One of the all time greatest desserts mixed with one of the all time greatest dinners, baklava lasagna is an unexpected meal that actually weirdly works! Pistachio, walnut, and honey can definitely go sweet or savory, so I relied on that as the baseline of flavors. I layered up the lasagna with super thin sheets of homemade pasta, the tasty nut mixture, ricotta, and mortadella. At first, I almost used chicken instead of mortadella. I was thinking about a sweet and savory Moroccan dish called Bisteeya that has lots of cinnamon, sugar, and chicken with filo dough. In the end I went with mortadella because I thought it would go with the pistachio well and liked how thin it is to fit between the layers.
The inspiration for this recipe
The baseline inspiration for this idea is simply that both lasagna and baklava are layered dishes. Sometimes that is enough in my mind to bring two things together! After I had the initial thought, then I realized how well the names work together! When two names fit perfectly – like the KoReuben, or Macsubi, I get really excited and need to make the recipe right away!
Making the nut filling
This mixture is pistachio, walnut, cinnamon, allspice, sugar, and garlic. Blend it up until it is this perfect sandy texture. This is pretty simmilar to what would be in a traditional baklava, and will work great layered up in this lasagna.
Make the lasagna noodles
Start with a dough of egg and flour and roll out out to the thinnest setting on your pasta maker. I only did a half sized batch of pasta, and it still made more than enough for this dish. I love making lasagna because it’s the easiest version of pasta to make, just roll it out and that is it!
Build the baklava lasagna
Get all your ingredients ready and start building the baklava lasagna!
Butter the pan first, then add a layer of noodles. Next add some ricotta, parmesan, pistachio, and honey. I used spicy honey to give it an extra kick!
Just keep layering up the baklava and lasagna ingredients until you fill the pan.
Baking the baklava lasagna
Get this into the oven for about 35 minutes at 350. When it is done, you will see the top getting brown and the sides bubbling.
Slice and serve the baklava lasanga!
I like to cut this lasagna the same way people often cut baklava, in triangle slices. Look how messy and delicious it looks!
This lasagna is super rich and balances the sweet and savory line perfectly. The crunchy chewy nut and honey mixture is so good, and works great between layers of pasta! The hot honey gave this dish the savory spicy kick it needed!
Such a unique and tasty dish that is perfect for the holiday season.
Twists on this dish
I mentioned I almost used chicken in this, and I think chicken would be great. Mushrooms would also work! I like doing the mix of walnut and pistachio, but you could use one or the other if you prefer. I also used hot honey in this, but you could just use regular honey if you don’t want any spice. You could also use regular honey and add some chili flakes to it!
For more fun twists on lasagna, check out my lasagna meatloaf, cuban sandwich lasagna, or this deep dish lasagna pizza!
Baklava Lasagna – Baklasagna!
Equipment
Ingredients
Pasta
- 1.5 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
Nut filling
- 1 cup pistachios roasted, unsalted
- 1 cup walnuts roasted, unsalted
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 2 cloves garlic sliced
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Lasagna
- 1 cup melted butter
- 3/4 cup hot honey
- 1/4 pound mortadella sliced thin
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
Make the pasta dough
- Add the flour and salt to a bowl and stir to combine. Whisk the eggs and then pour them into the flour. Stir to combine, and then use your hands to really bring together the thick dough. Knead for a few minutes, then wrap with plastic and let it rest about 30 minutes in the fridge while you make the nut mixture.
Make the nut mixture
- Add all the ingredients to a food process. Pule to combine. Do not overmix! You want it to be the texture of coarse sand.
Roll the pasta
- Use a pasta roller to roll the dough into thin sheets. Start with the whole ball of dough and try to flatten it with your hand a bit. Then run it through the pasta roller at the thickest setting. It will come out ripped and messy. Fold it onto itself and repeat about 10 times until the dough is smooth.
- split the dough into quarters and roll each out one by one, changing the setting thinner by one or two settings each time, until you get to the thinnest setting.
- Cut the doughs into the right size you will need for your baking dish. Bring some salted water to a boil and drop each piece of pasta into the boiling water one by one, only cooking it for about 3 minutes each. Place onto a plate sprayed with olive oil. Spray the top of the pasta with oil too, then repeat, stacking the cooked sheets of pasta on to each other with oil in between each.
Build the lasagna
- Preheat oven to 350
- Start with some melted butter in the bottom of the baking dish, then add a layer of the pasta. Top the pasta with some mortadella, parmesan cheese, ricotta, and then a thick layer of the nut mixture. Drizzle on a little cream. Repeat until you do about 4 layers and fill up the pan. After the final layer of pasta brush it with butter and top with the nut mixture.
- Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes until the edges of the pasta are getting crispy and you can see bubbles around the edges.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Cut and serve.