Susan Bellucci makes her Lasagna Bolognese with pot sticker noodles, which are great for making servings to order as opposed to having a single big pan of lasagna in the house. Meghan McCarthy/The Post

The cook: Susan Bellucci of West Palm Beach

Her story: I was born in Youngstown, Ohio, but raised in Mount Union, Pa. I was 2 when my dad died, and we went to live with my mom’s mother. I was the youngest of two. It was a very small town. Everybody knew everybody. The town was made up of Italian, Irish, Polish and Slovak immigrants.

I got a degree in special education from Penn State University. I student-taught in college, but when I graduated, they started mainstreaming special education children, and I didn’t agree with that. So I had a job in the restaurant business and I stayed there.

I moved to the suburbs of Pittsburgh to help open a restaurant called Gulliftys, and I was eventually promoted to management. I got married and left the restaurant business for a few years. I worked in the customer service department of my husband’s business, manufacturing steel shelving.

I got my culinary degree at the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh. I did my internship at The Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta. After I finished school, I got a job at The Ritz. The training, atmosphere and the amazing level of service they provided was great. I was the assistant manager for the dining room for The Ritz, and I was promoted to general manager of the dining room in Atlanta.

I got a call from Jim Frye, whom I had worked for in Pittsburgh, and he offered me a job at his new restaurant, the Italian Oven. I was director of training and customer service. I was there for five years, and we opened 110 restaurants in 17 states and Australia.

Mr. Frye started a new concept called the Italian Oven Cafe. He opened the first one in Florida at CityPlace in West Palm Beach. People order their food at the counter, sit down and we bring the food out to them. There is no tipping. I am the managing partner and chef at the restaurant. I helped develop the recipes, such as the lasagna Bolognese, the tomato tower and lobster ravioli.

I enjoy going to the beach, like to read recipes and love pasta and salads.

Her cooking story: I was very close to my grandmother, who was born in Czechoslovakia, because we went to live with her after my dad died. I was always by her side. She was a wonderful baker and cook. She taught me about making food from the garden. We grew tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, every vegetable that we could grow. She could make something out of nothing. If she had butter and flour, she could make something delicious.

My Italian grandmother, born near Sicily, taught me the nuances of making a great marinara sauce, gnocchi and meatballs. Every Sunday, the cooking would start before church, and then right after church. My mother’s sister, Aunt Mary, had three boys and cooked all the time. She made the best salad dressing, a simple red wine vinaigrette. She taught me about the simpleness of cooking, and how a few good ingredients could add a lot of flavor.

Favorite food from mom’s kitchen: Rigatoni with sauce, and spare ribs and meatballs. Aunt Mary made it. Every year on our birthday, we could pick a favorite meal. I picked this because it was so wonderful. It takes a long time to make it because the ribs simmer in the sauce for three hours. There’s a meatiness to the sauce.

Funny cooking disaster story: It was Thanksgiving, and I was in my early 20s. I was having 15 people over for dinner. I had a new convection oven, and I had a hard time getting the timer to work. Everything was ready, except for the 25-pound turkey in the oven. I couldn’t get the oven to work and the turkey wouldn’t cook. So we ate everything else, but there was no turkey that Thanksgiving. My family teased me, saying that it was a good thing I was going to culinary school. They still talk about the turkey today. It’s funny now because I end up making the turkey every year, and it has always cooked up beautifully.
Cooking tool you can’t do without: Food processor. It’s so much faster than chopping by hand. And it’s more uniform.

The recipe: Lasagna Bolognese

About the recipe: This lasagna is unconventional. It’s very light, and it doesn’t look like traditional lasagna. I was doing ravioli with won-ton noodles, and I liked that noodle because it’s something different so I used it in the lasagna. This can be made to order. I didn’t want to have a big pan of lasagna hanging around the restaurant because it’s not as fresh.

Lasagna Bolognese

Bolognese sauce:
5 cups San Marzano tomatoes
1⁄3 pound ground chuck
1⁄3 pound mild Italian sausage
1⁄3 pound ground veal
1⁄4 cup minced fresh onion
1⁄3 cup minced fresh garlic
1⁄4 cup minced carrot
1⁄3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon (or more to taste) sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1⁄2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1⁄2 cup fresh basil
1⁄4 cup fresh Italian parsley

Ricotta filling:
1 egg
1⁄2 pound ricotta cheese
1⁄4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1⁄8 teaspoon nutmeg
1⁄4 teaspoon nature’s seasoning (next to seasoned salt)

Pot sticker noodles (available in some grocery stores and always sold in Asian markets. You may substitute with won-ton noodles.)

Bolognese sauce:

Put tomatoes in bowl and crush with both hands, breaking tomatoes up into small pieces.
Saute the chuck, sausage, veal, onion, garlic and carrot in the olive oil until the meat is no longer pink.
Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper.

Let sauce come to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add basil and chopped parsley.
Place sauce in pan to cool. (Bolognese should be cold when assembling lasagna.)

Ricotta filling:

Beat egg in a bowl and add remaining ingredients, mixing well.

Chill until ready to use.

Pot sticker noodles:

Line baking tray with parchment paper. Spray with non-stick spray (preferably olive oil).

Heat 2 quarts of water in long shallow pan. Bring to boil.

Cook noodles until opaque, approximately 4 minutes.

Place cooked noodles on tray. Do not overlap.

Chill until ready to assemble.

Assembly and serving:

1. On a sheet tray or baking tray lined with parchment, lay pot stickers in single rows for as many portions as you will be serving. (1-2 per person).

2. With a 1-ounce scoop, place 1 scoop of meat sauce on center of noodle.

3. Top with another noodle.

4. With a 1-ounce scoop, place ricotta in center of noodle.

5. Top with another noodle.

6. Repeat steps 2-5.

To heat lasagna (in the oven):

Preheat oven to 400°.

Place lasagna stacks in baking dish.

Heat lasagna until internal temperature is 150°.

Place lasagna on serving plate and cover with sauce.

Top with shaved Parmesan, garnish with basil leaf. Serve.