Lasagne My-Way

This may seem a little simple or a bit everyday to put on the blog but what it comes down to is Lasagne is a all time dinner winner for kids and adults.

Everyone has their own favourite recipe or way of making Lasagne some authentic some not.

The only thing I dislike about some peoples Lasagne is some times they make it with the jarred sauces.

It is so simple to make the sauce from scratch and I can personally guarantee it'll taste a million times better.

A few key points to think about before making Lasagne or Bolognese sauce

1. Buy the best quality mince you can afford.
2. Make sure your saucepan/frying pan is very hot when frying the meat to make sure you get good brown colour and the meat doesn't boil or look grey.
3. Remember when using tinned tomatoes you may need to add a pinch of sugar if it tastes acidic.
4. Taste by this I mean taste your food regularly how can you be sure it will taste right at the end if you haven't seasoned it correctly through out each stage.
5. The longer and slower you cook the meat sauce the better it will taste so if you have time it will certainly benefit loads.
6. Be confident if it goes wrong for some reason remember the next time it will be right.

Serves 4-6

Preparation time 30-40 minutes (if you want to cook the sauce longer by all means do).

Cooking time 30 minutes in oven

Ingredients:

450g or 1lb of good quality mince beef

50g pancetta or diced up rashers

1 diced white onion

2 garlic cloves crushed and diced

1 sprig thyme or pinch of dried thyme

1 beef oxo cube crumbled

olive oil 1-2 tbsn

Splash Worchester sauce

Salt and Pepper

Splash red wine (optional) can use water or stock instead

1 tin tomatoes

Pinch sugar to taste

Salt and Pepper

100g fresh Basil

100g grated cheese to top the Lasagne

Bechamel Sauce / White Sauce

Ingredients:

40g butter

20g flour

425ml milk

pinch of nutmeg

salt and black pepper

Method:

Heat a wide base sauce pan or large frying pan on hob with olive oil

To check if its hot throw in a little bit of onion if it sizzles its ready

Add onions,garlic and pancetta

keep stirring until the bacon browns a little be sure not to burn the garlic as the sauce will taste very bitter if you do.

Remove from the pan when cooked and drain off the extra fat

Put pan on hob again with a little oil when hot add the beef mince,

cook until brown if your pot is small cook in batches as the meat will boil and go tastes-less otherwise.

Crumble in the oxo cube and the thyme and worchester sauce and season.

Add the onion,garlic and pancetta back to the pot with mince.

Add red wine and tomatoes.

Bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes on a low heat.

At the end taste and season add the pinch of sugar if needed

Finally stir in the fresh basil.

Method for White Sauce:

Melt butter in sauce-pan on a low-ish heat

Add flour to butter and stir around until well combined

This is called a 'Roux'

On a medium heat add the milk drop by drop using a whisk to stir in the milk

As the roux absorbs the milk you know its ready to take the next bit.

Dont be too hasty when it comes to adding the milk or you'll end up with a lumpy sauce.

Also keep whisking and cook for 2-3 minutes to make the flour is cooked out.

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Finally start layering up the lasagna, start with the meat sauce then a layer of pasta then a layer of white sauce,meat sauce and repeat. When all your layers are done top the lasagna with grated cheese of your choice Parmesan or Gruyere even some white cheddar will do just fine.
Bake in a medium hot oven until bubbling and nice and brown.
Will freeze very well.

If you don't have time to make lasanga.
The meat sauce will go lovely with homemade cheats papperdelle pasta. With the fresh lasagna sheets cut them length ways and cook in boiling salted water until al dente, the Italians say the water they cook pasta in should be as salty as the Mediterranean sea that's pretty salty however the water should have enough salt to season the pasta. Also a lot of people put oil in pasta water because they think it stops pasta sticking together this is a myth as if you mix oil and water the oil will always rise to the top so it doesn't benefit from it all and in fact your throwing oil away buy adding it. Paola Tuilo pointed this out at a cookery demo at the cork taste festival.
Al dente means to the tooth and the only way to make sure you have cooked it correctly is to taste it during cooking pasta should still have a bite but not to be too crunchy or too mushy. With fresh pasta this will only take 4-5 mins.
Enjoy !