This is episode eight of Robb Report’s series Culinary Masters, where we go behind the scenes with some of America’s best chefs to see how their iconic dishes are made. Watch the previous episodes here.
It’s the dish heard ’round Instagram. Chefs Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli pinwheel lasagna has taken the New York City restaurant scene—and social media—by storm since their restaurant Don Angie opened in 2017. It’s a photogenic rendition of the layered Bolognese classic that on top of being nice to look at, is pretty damn tasty too.
Rito first thought of the dish before opening Don Angie by seeing a picture of cinnamon rolls and drawing inspiration from there. The building of the lasagna is somewhat similar, in that large sheets are laid out with ingredients spread on top and then rolled up, sliced, and arrayed in a baking pan. While copious amounts of cheese go into the lasagna (Rito jokes that Don Angie is a “cheese restaurant” for the amount of formaggio that appears across its menu), the dish is surprisingly light when you eat it. That’s because it’s not packed quite as tightly as a lasagna where all the layers are on top of each other. It makes it so that Don Angie’s lasagna is one of those famous dishes that actually live up to the hype when you finally eat it.
In this episode of Culinary Masters, Rito and Tacinelli show culinary editor Jeremy Repanich the ingredients, time, and effort that go into making this lasagna, and how they put their own Italian American spin on the traditional Italian al forno pasta. And they also discuss how it’s become so popular it’s the cover star of their first cookbook and necessitates making 100 lasagnas a day to keep up with demand.
