Does anyone have a tried and tested Lasagne Recipe ?

[hillfamily]

I'm looking for a tasty but not too tricky Lasagne recipe to add to my everyday meals recipe list
If anyone has one, I would be very grateful if you could post it for me...thank you

[kinsk]

If I can be bothered I go with delias http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuis ... forno.html I do tend to cut the nutmeg out though.

More often than not I make my versions (or more accurately my mothers version) of bolognese.

1 large chopped onion and a couple of cloves of chopped garlic sweated in a pan with some olive oil. Take out of the pan, add a bit more oil and brown some lean minced beef (about a 400g pack) add back the onion and garlic.

Slosh in a good glass full of red wine and whilst it's bubbling away scrape off all the bits from the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle over one crumbled beef oxo cube and about a tablespoon of paprika. Add in some dired mixed herbs and some fresh oregano if you can get it, dried if not. Season well and add a splash of worcestershire sauce, about two tablespoons of tomato puree, a squirt of tomato ketchup a tin of tomatoes, fill tin up with water and add that too. Allow the sauce to simmer away for at least half an hour, more is possible. You don't want it too runny nor too dry.

Put a layer of sauce into your dish, cover with dried lasagne sheets, I just break them into bits to fill any gaps, slice a ball of mozarella and arrange half ontop of the pasta, more mince sauce, more pasta, more mozarella, more mince sauce and then a tub of creme fraiche (I use low fat versions) cover with grated parmesan cheese and bake in the oven (on a tray incase of bubble over) for about 30-40 mins.

[ClaireG]

I do a similar bolognese to Kinsk but don't do the mozarella thing. I just layerthe bolognese between lasagne sheets and top the lot with cheese sauce. I also do a veggie one using roasted veg instead of the bolognese sauce.

[hillfamily]

Thanks Kinsk...my mouth is watering just reading the recipe

I'll be making that for dinner this week

[majorbloodnock]

For the bolognese sauce, it's a toss-up whether I do a fairly authentic classic version or my quicker one. Both seem to work well in a lasagne for different reasons.

Classic version

Finely chop a medium onion, then soften in a couple of oz of butter (this ain't for the health conscious). Once properly softened - about 5 mins or so - add 3 sticks of celery and 4 medium carrots, once again both finely chopped, and fry gently for about 5 minutes. Next, add a spare pound of beef mince (not too lean; chuck is good) and a generous pinch of salt to encourage the juices and flavour out of the meat. Fry until the meat has lost its pink colour, then add 8 fl oz dry white wine. Simmer until the liquid has evaporated, then add 8 fl oz milk and do the same. Once the liquid is once again gone, add about a tin and a quarter of chopped peeled plum tomatoes with their juice and bring the whole lot to a simmer. At this point, reduce the heat down so you've got as lazy a simmer as possible - barely a bubble at all - and let it cook uncovered for at least 3 hours. If the ragu looks like it's drying out too much, you can add a few fl oz of water, but by the end the sauce should be dry enough that the fat is separating out.

That's obviously not a "stock standard" spag bog sauce, but does taste great and can be made in larger quantities and frozen ahead of time.

My quicker version

Chuck some cubed pancetta (one blister if you buy it from a supermarket, just a couple of oz if not, but do try to avoid the stuff that bleeds water all over the place when fried) into a saucepan and dry fry to extract the fat. In that fat, fry a large onion, finely chopped, then add a chopped carrot and/or half a green pepper finely chopped. Once the onion's softened, add 1lb of beef mince (once again, not too lean). Fry until you've lost the redness of the meat, then add a generous glass of wine (red for richness, white for a slightly lighter flavour) and a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes with juice. Stir around and simmer for as long as you've patience, but remember that the flavour of the meat won't emerge properly until at least an hour into the simmering. Don't stop cooking it whilst the sauce is too liquid, or you'll end up with a little water separating out.

Either way, for putting together a lasagne, I prefer to precook the pasta, even if it's a no precook variety. If you don't, it's got to take the moisture from somewhere, and it'll come from your ragu, risking the whole dish ending up too dry. Make up a white sauce to about the consistency of pouring cream, and grate up some parmesan. The Italians then suggest you mix the ragu and the white sauce together, but I prefer layering; layer of ragu, layer of pasta, layer of white sauce, layer of parmesan then repeat to get about 4 to 6 layers of each in total, ending with the parmesan as the last layer on top so it browns nicely. Chuck it into a fairly hot oven and serve as soon as it's browned; shouldn't be more than about 10 to 15 mins.

[Rhapsody]

Some tips from a Lasagne veteran, some are tradtional family methods, some are just for ease without compromise!

I make my white sauce with milk infused with half an onion, bay leaf, and allspice berries, boiled up in the morning then left covered all day to get flavour. And I never bother with roux, just put the milk on a lowish heat, add cubed butter and plain flour and whisk every time I walk past it as I cook the other bits. I usually chuck some grated mature cheddar in at the end.

My Bolognese Sauce I always bake for 2 hours before using- its the trad way to do it and the difference is amazing.

I use fresh Lasagne sheets cos you can cut them to shape with kitchen scissors, and I never pre-boil them.

I cover the last layer with torn mozzarella and some more cheddar and bake in a lowish oven until the top goes golden brown.

Hope that is all of some use. (In Homer voice) Mmmmmm.......Lasagne...

[Lesley]

My favourite is sliced, garlicy mushrooms instead of the meat layer.

[Helly Welly]

I cheat a bit with my white sauce, i use creme fraiche and grated cheese mixed together. I also tend to use pasta sauce from a jar, or a tin of chopped tomatoes with frozen veg mixed together. We LOVE lasagne in this house.

[Space Chick]

Mine takes forever to make

So I always make in bulk and freeze

I infuse the milk for the white sauce, with onion, nutmeg and peppercorns.

My Bolognese always has a generous glass of white wine in it, I prefer it to red in a bolognese

Lasagne sheets are always freshly made and never pre-cooked.

and it has to be topped with generous amounts of mature cheddar

[Helly Welly]

I'm really impressed with all the trouble most of you go too but for me, lasagne is a quick, easy meal so i'll keep cheating

[fluffyknickers]

If you have a slow cooker you can make the mince in there and leave ot on low whilst out then only have to 'build' the lasagne before you want to put it in the oven. Even quicker if you have already made your white sauce.

I recently used the one from the river cottage family cook book (i think it was from there) and was easy and yum.

I do make my own white sauce with just flour and butter and milk and I do like cheese so chuck a couple of hanfduls in then finish off the top with parmasan.

My friends that dont really cook make a lasagne by cheating with bought white sause and the bologniase sauce and its VERY quick!

Michelle

[kinsk]

I always make big vats of bolognese sauce when I do it so there is usually some in the freezer which speeds the process up.

I am quite precious about what goes into it and I find things like carrots, mushrooms etc. can make it too sweet. For me the base comes from really browning the mince.

I don't really get the point of jars of sauce when making a bolognese/ragu, the lengthy (not that it really takes too long) process is the sweating onions, garlic and browning the mince which you still need to do, the rest is tipping in tins of tomatoes and some herbs, so opening a jar and tipping that in instead doesn't seem that time saving, and I find they always taste quite sweet too.