First of all, I'm not Italian so this recipe I'm about to share is very, very bastardised.
Second of all, I actually wanted to make quesadillas for dinner tonight, but I was voted against, 2 to 1. 😅 You know, quesadillas! An easy thing to quickly rush into the kitchen, cook, and serve in under 15 minutes. Instead now I have to hover in the kitchen for hours.
I mean, I love being in the kitchen. And it's not like I have anything better to do at this exact moment in time. So. It's time to prepare some lasagne!
First of all, I need to cook up a garlicky tomato sauce. If there's one thing that irritates me ever since I started cooking my own food, it's that I just can't use a pre-made jar sauce anymore.
It has no flavour. It disappoints me greatly.
Some days I want to be lazy but it tastes terrible, so unfortunately I can never be lazy again.
Ingredients for the Sauce
- 1 can of diced tomatoes (two pictured, but I didn't use the second)
- 1 cup of chicken stock
- a whole head of garlic, perhaps two -- you only live once!, diced as small as possible
- a good dash of Italian Herbs
- onion, diced
- salt n pepper
- a sprinkling of Red Chili Flakes, because this is a bastardised lasagne and I feel like some SPICE
In the picture above, I have some red wine vinegar... I decided not to use it, I didn't really want that flavour profile in tonight's dinner. But you could always use it if you want!
You could also use whatever stock you have on hand. Ideally I would prefer vegetable stock, but only had chicken in the pantry. And if you want your sauce to be more of a tomato one than a beef one, feel free to add that extra can of tomatoes.
On a medium heat, we're going to saute the onions and garlic for a few minutes, until the onion has softened and the garlic smells delightful.
If you're a sadist, like I am, feel free to add some more minced garlic if the fresh stuff you've thrown in just doesn't seem like enough.
Once you've smooshed that around for another couple of minutes, add your herbs.
We'll saute the herbs into the onion-garlic mixture and make it extra tasty. 😋
Once the herbs are rather fragrant, add a decent dash of tomato paste (or sun-dried tomatoes if you're feeling fancy!) and cook with the onion-garlic-herb mixture for another minute.
Now add your stock!
Add your tomatoes!
Throw in a dash of sugar to mellow those tomatoes out a bit!
Bring to the boil, then lower to a simmer. You don't need to cook this for too long. Honestly, twenty minutes or so is fine. You may need to add a little bit of water to it if it thickens too much. I ended up adding about half a cup more water.
Because I'm making a bastardised lasagne, my red sauce isn't going to be sauce-and-meat. Nope. I'm adding mushrooms to the mix too!
Ingredients for the Meat
- 350g of beef mince
- Mushrooms, sliced and chopped
- Another spoonful of garlic because we're livin' on the edge
- Salt n pepper
Lightly saute your mushrooms with some garlic.
Add your minced beef and cook until brown.
Make your sauce and your meat become one! ❤️😆 You may need to add a touch more water if, once again, it seems a bit too thick.
Bring to boil then turn off the stove. Then allow this to sit for a couple of hours. To be honest, the longer the better! The more it sits, the more it will gain flavour. That's why spaghetti bolognese and other saucy things taste better the next day. 😄 Mmm.
Mine is only sitting for an hour and a half, need to get it ready for dinner tonight. That's fine; it'll still be yummy.
After your sauce and meat have gotten to know one another, and have spent a good amount of time relaxing together, it's time to preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and make some bechamel sauce!
Preheating the oven because the moment this white sauce is done, the layering begins and straight into the oven it goes.
Ingredients for Bechamel Sauce
- Flour
- Butter
- Milk (or thickened/heavy/double cream)
- Nutmeg
- Salt
I don't measure these things, to be honest.
Quantify a large chunk of butter, two good heapings of flour, enough milk so the concoction is as thick as I want, and enough nutmeg and salt to taste.
Cook the flour and butter together until a nice roux has formed.
Gradually whisk in your milk, splash by splash, until you think you personally have enough. I ended up using about 750mL, so about 3 cups of milk?
Add in plenty of nutmeg and salt to taste and whisk, whisk, whisk!
Soon you'll have a nice, smooth white sauce, all ready for your lasagne.
With that done, it's time to layer!
Always start with a saucey bottom or your lasagne sheets will stick to the tray.
My personal way of layering is thus:
- meat sauce
- lasagne sheets
- meat sauce
- lasagne sheets
- half the white sauce
- a lottttttttt of mozzarella cheese
- lasagne sheets
- the remainder of the meat sauce
- lasagne sheets
- the last of the white sauce
- covered in a good thick layer of mozzarella
- topped again with cheddar
- ideally topped again with parmesan, but today I didn't have any 😞
Now we chuck that into our preheated oven!
And cook for about 40-45 minutes.
Once it's cooked, we let it rest for another half an hour or so.
And then... we serve! 😁😄
And then... we eat! 😈 Mmmm, delicious!
