NYC's Don Angie Is Known For Its Unique Lasagna Preparation
In life, there's not many things better than a baked dish of lasagna bubbling fresh from the oven. The delicious smell hugs every corner of the house, and the first steamy slice yields the perfect cheese pull. It's a comfort food like no other and can be made many different ways. And New York City, home to some of the most innovative food creations, just wow-ed the world again with its addition of West Village Italian restaurant, Don Angie, which creates lasagna in the most unique way possible — rolled up.
If you've ever made cinnamon rolls from scratch, it's a bit similar to that. You roll a slab of dough out on a work surface, coat it with your filling, roll it up tightly, slice it, and bake it. And what if we told you that this is exactly how Don Angie's lasagna was made? Not with the same ingredients, obviously, but with the same technique.
In a recent Instagram post, Don Angie gives us a behind the scenes look at how they create such a rare take on an Italian classic.
How the lasagna rolls are made
Starting with a square sheet of fresh pasta dough on a work surface, a chef coats the dough with a creamy white béchamel sauce, sprinkles it with grated Parmesan, and shreds Mozzarella cheese over the top. From there, they add another sheet of pasta dough, pressing a two-inch divet into one end and spreading with more béchamel to act as a glue, topping the rest of the pasta sheet with their Bolognese sauce, and beginning to roll the entree. After rolling tight, you'll have a long pasta log that can be sliced — just like a cinnamon roll. In a baking dish, they spread their homemade tomato sauce in the bottom and lay enough lasagna rolls to fit into the sauce. Once it's baked to perfection, they pipe creamy robiola cheese in mounds into the crevices of the dish.
According to TODAY, using robiola cheese lightens up this dish compared to ricotta, which is traditionally used in lasagna. Every component of this dish is homemade — from the pasta dough and tomato sauce, to the béchamel and Bolognese. However, you can easily swap them out for store-bought when you need a Don Angie fix in a pinch. Because let's face it, getting a reservation at the restaurant is quite difficult due to its booming popularity (via Gotham).
About the chefs
According to Don Angie, Angela Rito and Scott Tacinelli are the chefs and owners of Don Angie. With Rito growing up in Cleveland, where she worked for her family-run Italian bakery, Rito's Bakery, her passion for Italian cuisine started early. Learning how to cook, bake, and run a business from adolescence, she always knew she wanted to own her own restaurant one day. Starting out as a front of house captain at Park Avenue Autumn/Winter/Spring/Summer in New York, her drive led her from line cook to sous chef — and to Tacinelli.
Tacinelli grew up with avid cooks in an Italian-American family in New Jersey. Originally an advertising sales rep for CBS radio, his passion for cooking led him into kitchens as he attended the French Culinary Institute. Just before graduation, Tacinelli was hired as a line cook at Park Avenue Summer and with his skills proving himself, he was promoted to sous chef a year later.
Rito and Tacinelli ultimately fell in love and proceeded to open dinnertable, an East Village speakeasy restaurant where they showcased their famous lasagna, as well as a location of Quality Italian in Denver, before making their way back to New York to start Don Angie. Not only has their lasagna changed up the New York food scene, but their entire menu is chock full of creative dishes with unique flavor combinations stemming from the two cook's childhoods and culinary expertise.