This is probably my signature dish. I make it for friends who have just had a baby, or who need cheering up. It’s a once-a-weeker in our house, and I could probably do it blind-folded, which means I don’t really know the measurements of each ingredient…it’s a hand full of this and a slurp of that and a fair bit of red wine. Speaking of wine, this is a dish that needs to be cooked with passion, so pour yourself a glass!
My Lasagna recipe:
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil, 3 cloves garlic (crushed), 1 onion (chopped), 1 lb lean organic ground beef, 1 big pinch dried Italian herbs, 1 28oz tin diced tomatoes,1 small tin tomato paste, 1 cup beef stock,1 big slurp of good red wine (plus a glass to drink), salt and pepper to taste.
3 tablespoons butter, approx. 3 – 4 heaped tablespoons plain flour, approx. 1/2 – 1 cup milk, 2 hand fulls of grated sharp cheddar cheese, 1 hand full of grated mozzarella cheese.
1 packet no-boil lasagna sheets
Method
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Cook onion and garlic till soft. Add ground beef and brown in pan, stirring frequently. Add herbs, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and a slug of red wine, stir and cook at the highest temperature you can without letting it stick on the bottom. As the liquid evaporates add beef stock as needed and stir. Add salt and pepper and turn down temperature to allow meat sauce to simmer.
In a medium saucepan, melt butter and sprinkle flour into pan. Stir and allow to cook for a minute or two (this allows the gluten in the flour to absorb the butter and expand, preventing lumps forming in the final sauce). Keep stirring and gradually add milk until the consistency is slightly more runny than you want your sauce to be. Continue to stir and add the sharp cheddar cheese until it is absorbed into the sauce. Finally stir in the mozzarella. Remove cheese sauce from heat.
To assemble the lasagna, spoon some of the meat sauce into the bottom of a 9″ x 13″ oven-safe lasagna pan. Place one layer of lasagna sheets over sauce (I like to run my sheets under the tap to moisten first). Spoon half of the remaining meat sauce into the pan and spread evenly. Cover with another layer of lasagna sheets. Pour half of the cheese sauce over the lasagna and spread. Cover with the remaining meat sauce. Add one more layer of lasagna sheets and top with the last of the cheese sauce.
Bake in oven for 30 minutes. Once cooked and browned on top, let sit for 20 minutes before serving with a fresh green salad. Keep or freeze the left-overs. It tastes even better the next day.
