Lasagne made with Love

Tags

food, Italian, love

Lasagne. I think the last time I made this dish was probably about 2 years ago when we were living in Manchester! I just find it so time consuming and you know me, I am more of a “the less time you are in the kitchen, the better” kind of person.

But when my husband requested Lasagne for dinner a couple of nights ago, I could not exactly say no…….this time! 😉 I have to be completely honest, I don’t have the exact measurements for this dish as it is my Mama’s recipe. So this dish has always been cooked with great abandon!

Ingredients
for the bolognese sauce…
• Lean minced beef (browned)
• Garlic (minced with cracked black pepper)
• A whole white onion (diced)
• Italian sweet green pepper (diced)
• Mushrooms (roughly chopped)
• a tin of Peeled plum tomatoes
• Concentrated tomato puree
• a chicken stock cube (in hot water)
• Oregano
• salt to taste
• a little sugar

Method
1. Before anything, brown the minced beef in a skillet.
2. In a saucepan, add a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and throw in the onions and peppers. Sauté till the onions are soft and clear. Add the minced garlic.
3. Put the browned minced beef and continue to stir for 2 mins before adding the chicken stock. Add the mushrooms, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, salt and a little sugar.
4. Leave to simmer on a low heat for 45 mins. Keep checking and stirring to make sure it does not burn!

for the white sauce…
• a little flour
• Milk
• Grated cheese
• Italian mixed herbs
• Butter
• salt & pepper to taste

Method
1. In a saucepan, add butter and a little bit of olive oil just so the butter doesn’t burn. To that, add the flour and milk a little at a time. Once there are no lumps, add the cheese, herbs & seasoning.
2. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens slightly. If you feel it’s too thick, add a little more milk.

…Now you are ready to assemble the Lasagne

1. In an oven proof dish, place some of the white sauce first before putting the pasta so it won’t move around.
2. Assemble this anyway you want, the way I do it is, pasta, white sauce, bolognese sauce. I press the pasta down gently to make it more compact. Carry on till you get almost to the top of the dish with the top layer being the bolognese sauce.
3. Top it off with grated cheese and place in a pre heated oven ~ 180 degrees celcius.

4. Leave to cook for 40 mins or until the cheese is slightly golden. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.

I served mine with a side salad dressed with olive oil & lemon juice and some breadsticks.

Needless to say that my husband was a very happy man and had 2 servings with plenty more leftovers for the next 2 days!

Glad that was over and done with! That will be me for the next 2 years before I absolutely HAVE to prepare another Lasagne! Phew!! ☺️

Enjoy and have a fabulous weekend! 💛