Best Ever Lasagne

This is the best ever lasagne…ever.

Every man and his dog has a lasagne recipe. Here is mine: it’s simple - based on beef and lots of cheese. What more can I say?

Recipe

Serves 6 with big slices or 8 with smaller slices

Ingredients

For the Beef Ragu sauce:

1 chopped onion

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 carrot

2 sticks of celery

1/2 cup of olive oil

500g of good quality beef mince

1 cup of red wine

1 cup of good quality beef stock

2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes

1 x 700g bottle of tomato passata

2 sprigs of rosemary

2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper

For the Bechamel sauce:

50 g of butter

3 tablespoons of plain flour

2 ½ cups of milk

Salt to taste

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

For the assembly:

About 12 -15 sheets of instant lasagne for a 30cmx20cm dish

200g of Regianno parmigianno cheese

400g of shredded mozzarella

Methods

To make the beef ragu:

1. Put the onion, garlic, carrot and celery though a food processor until they are finely chopped. This is known as ‘sofritto’.

2. Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large saucepan, add the sofrito and gently cook until tender and slightly caramalised. Take out of the pan into a side bowl

3. Now add the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil and cook the mince until all the water has evaporated and the mince is slightly crispy and caramalised

4. Add the cooked sofrito back into pan with the mince and stir. Add the wine and let it reduce.

5. Add the stock, tinned tomatoes, passata, whole rosemary sprigs and bay leaves, salt and pepper to the mince and let the sauce gently simmer on low heat for about 2-3 hours. Take the sprigs of rosemary and bay leaves out of the sauce – their job to infuse the sauce is done.

6. This is now your lovely reduced beef ragu (or bologenese sauce) that you will use for the lasagne assembly, but bear in mind if you are short on time, this is a perfect sauce to serve with penne, fettucini or spaghetti and sprinkle with parmigianno.

To make the bechamel:

1. Heat the butter in small saucepan until melted, add the flour and stir until frothy and thickened

2. Add the milk and with a small whisk, keep stirring over low heat until it has thickened further

3. Add a pinch of salt and some freshly grated nutmeg

To assemble:

1. In a 30cm x 20cm baking dish, add a thin layer of the beef ragu

2. Put a layer of dry instant lasagne sheet on top, add another layer of beef ragu. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the parmesan cheese and 1/3 of the mozzarella.

3. Repeat with another layer of lasagne sheest, beef and cheese

4. Add a final layer of lasgane sheets, pour over the entire bechamel sauce, making sure it falls into the crevices on the side of dish as well. Add the last 1/3 of parmigianno and mozzarella

5. Cover with foil and bake in oven (350 F or 200 C) for ½ hour with foil on and then another 1/2 hour with foil off to get the top extra crunchy.

6. Let it sit for 5 minutes before serving

7. Aaaaaaaahhh… enjoy the deliciousness