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Lasagna

Saleem
Actually a super versatile dish and not too bad if you make it in parts. Let me show you how to get it right every time.
The easiest way to do this is to make the bolognese the day before, then on the day you just have to make the white sauce and put the lasagna togther. The while sauce is also called béchamel which is a French word so I don't know how that happened - is lasagna part French ?
Anyway, we don't have time for etymology, lets get on with the recipe.
Print Recipe
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian

Ingredients
  

Bolognese

  • 1 cup finely chopped carrots
  • 1 cup finely chopped onions
  • 1 cup finely chopped celery
  • 3-4 finely chopped garlic cloves
  • 1 kg mince meat
  • 3-4 tsp dried mixed herbs or Italian seasoning
  • 2-3 tbsp tomato puree
  • 2-3 leaves basil

White Sauce

  • 50 g butter
  • 50 g plain flour
  • 1 lt Milk non diary milk works fine
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Lasagna

  • 1 packet Lasagna sheets
  • 50 g Parmesan or as much as you like

Instructions
 

Bolognese

  • Soften the onions and garlic on a medium flame in 3-4 tablespoons of oil.
  • Throw in the carrots and celery and continue to sautee until everything is reduced and soft - around 10-15 minutes.
  • Add in the mince meat and mixed herbs. Season to taste, around 1 tsp of salt per 500g of mince is a good start.
  • Fry until the meat is brown and add the tomato paste.
  • No need to add water at this stage as the veg and meat will release water and we need this to be kinda thick.
  • Lower the heat, lid and leave for 30 minutes. Throw in a few bay leaves if you have them.

White Sauce

  • Same as the Moussaka recipe here. Melt butter in a pan.
  • Add the flour, always stirring until it turns into a beige paste, keep stirring otherwise it clumps up. If its browning too fast, turn the heat down a little.
  • Add the milk a little at a time, constantly stirring and incorporating.
  • Add 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Lasagna

  • Now everything needs to cool a little before you can use it. give it 15 minutes. Take the bay leaves out of the mince.
  • OK, so layering, I forget every time.
    The way to remember is that the white sauce goes under the pasta because that helps to cook it.
    The meat goes on the pasta, because yep, where else would it go :)
    Butter your lasagna dish well.
  • So what do we start with? start with the meat.
  • Then the white sauce.
  • Then the pasta, and repeat.
  • meat on the pasta
  • white sauce on the meat
  • pasta on the white sauce
  • and repeat so you have 3 layers
  • top with as much cheese as you like. Admire my layers first.
  • In the oven at around 160 degrees C for around an hour or until the cheese is nice and brown.
    Then the hardest part, it needs to set for an hour after it comes out of the oven, we have never achieved this in our house! Someone is always too hungry to wait and i have to look away as the lasagna is served falling apart!
  • Yep it vanished before i could take any pictures of the finished dish!
Keyword lasagna