Lasagne

Lasagne is one of the most satisfying meals you can make at home. It fills you up, is really easy, has very few ingredients, and you can chop and change it to create different flavours. The only problem is that it takes a bit of planning and time.

It is pretty much two things mixed together: spaghetti bolognaise and white sauce. Baked. So if you can make those two things, and have an oven, you can make lasagne.

So you need these things (clockwise from left): a bottle of passata (tomato puree), a 400g can of roma tomatoes (you can get chopped ones, or you can chop them up yourself, or you could, horror of horrors, use actual tomatoes), a small tin of tomato paste, grated cheese (a pizza cheese mix is good, gives lots of flavours, or you can use plain cheddar), two or so packets of lasagne sheets (you might have spares), 400g or so of beef mince, some butter, two cloves of garlic, and an onion. You'll also need olive oil (not pictured).

Chop the onion into thin pieces, as small as you can get, and crush the onion. Melt the butter in the oil (a couple of table spoons) and start cooking the onion and garlic until it goes nice and golden.

Then chuck in the meat and break it up into little pieces and cook until it browns all over. Then tip in the tomatoes - the paste, the passata and the tinned tomatoes. Stir this around until it is all mixed in well. Bring it up to a boil - it will start to plop and spit little volcanoes of red sauce at you and start making a mess. Put a lid on it, lower the heat as far as it will go. The amazing thing about this part is that you can leave this sauce for as long as three or four hours, just simmering, and it will get richer and richer and richer. But you don't really need to do that for the lasagne, only for bolognaise (and even then you have to be really keen). It will look like this:While this is simmering, you can make the white sauce (see last post). Below is a picture of the various elements of the lasagne up until this point:From the left, clockwise, is the bolognaise sauce, the white sauce, the cheese, the lasagne sheets and the dish. I hope you have a dish ready. At a pinch you could make it in a pyrex bowl.

So now you need to construct the lasagne. First, lay a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan. This will cook the bottom lasagne sheets. Now lay the sheets on top of this. You can either go all out and cover every square centimetre of the pan with the sheets (which is hard, because lasagne sheets don't split easily or neatly), or just lay three or so overlapping slightly. Next, pour some of the white sauce over the lasagne sheets, and spread it all the way to the edges. Then sprinkle some cheese over that:
So you keep making these layers until you run out of sheets. After you lay your last lasagne sheets, pour the rest of your sauce over, then the rest of your white sauce, then the last of your cheese. If this layer is nice and thick, so much the better. Pour some more parmesan and pepper over the top if you have it, and put it in the oven (which you have of course preheated to 180C) for around an hour, or until it starts to brown on top. It will look a lot like this:So that's that. Cut it up, serve it, and enjoy. It will make around eight slices. One is probably enough per person.

Result
My wife says this was delicious, and I would have to agree. Lasagne is really impressive, and is really difficult to wreck - just don't burn it. The top will be really nice and crispy, and the insides really soft and delicious. All the flavours will mingle together, the white sauce will melt into the cheese (or is it the other way around). You can freeze the remainder happily, or it will make lunch for a few days.

For the ultimate lasagne meal, make a tiramisu for dessert. But you'll have to wait for that recipe, it is for special occasions only. Enjoy!