In a large stock pot add butter, bacon or pancetta, carrots, onion and celery. Sauté over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and place cooked veggies in a medium bowl and set aside. Place ground beef and pork in stock pot and cook until browned. Drain grease from meat. Pour cooked veggies into stock pot with the meat. Add tomato paste and 1 cup chicken stock. Stir to combine over medium heat for 1 minute. Pour in pureed tomatoes and remainder of chicken stock. Using kitchen grade twine tie up thyme and toss into stock pot along with the bay leaves and bring to a boil. Immediately lower heat and then add milk. Simmer sauce for 1 to 2 hours or until you achieve a meaty consistency. Note: when I use a gas stove I can reach my favorite consistency within about 1-hour but when I use an electric stove it takes about 2 hours or so.

In a large pot sauté onions in olive oil for about 2 minutes or until soft. Add dried red pepper flakes and garlic. Continue to cook over low heat for about 1 minute. Then add both types of tomatoes to the onion/garlic mixture adding salt, pepper and spices. Using a hand-held immersion blender blend for about 15 seconds or until desired consistency. I like mine a little chunky. Cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes. Remove sauce from heat, cover pot with lid, set aside and allow to cool.

In a large sauce pan add heavy whipping cream and butter and bring to a slight boil. Turn down heat and add freshly grated fontina and parmesan cheeses, garlic, salt and pepper and stir constantly until smooth. Remove from heat and allow cream mixture to cool completely. I placed mine in a 9×13 cake pan and place in the refrigerator. Once the mixture cools completely it will set up and be thicker. Although this next step is optional, I prefer doing it to make things easier. Once the sauce has thickened I place the sauce in a zip lock baggie. Reason so, when making the layers to the lasagna I can just cut a corner of the bag and easily pipe the cheese mixture on as one of the layers.

Assemble

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheight. In an aluminum 9×13 disposal aluminum pan spoon a small layer of marinara sauce to cover the entire bottom inside pan. Then add a layer of oven ready lasagna sheets (3), top with 1 cup Bolognese sauce and spread evenly over lasagna sheets. Then add a layer of fontina béchamel cream sauce, and then sprinkle with some fontina cheese. Add another layer of lasagna sheets and continue adding layer of ingredients the same way as noted above making the last layer end with the topping of fontina cheese.

Bake

Cover lasagna pan with aluminum foil and place pan on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes. Carefully remove pan from oven and remove foil. Return pan to oven and continue baking for an additional 30 minutes. Remove lasagna from oven and allow to cool and set up for 30 minutes to 1 hour before serving.

Final Step (optional but highly recommended!)

To really make this lasagna super exceptional I cut out individual pieces of lasagna, place on a oven safe plate, top the lasagna with a couple spoonful’s of warmed marinara sauce and a couple slices of burrata cheese. Then place the lasagna in the oven and broil just until the cheese has melted and started turning brown. Carefully remove from oven and enjoy!