Lasagne is a huge favourite in the house! It’s very easy to make and you can add loads of different types of vegetables. Every time I make this dish I always thought to myselt “I will freeze the lefter over”, but so far it has not happened as it tastes sooo good the day after!
Lasagne is my favourite pasta dish and I used to order it at the Italian restaurants all the time and each time I was dissapointed! The restaurant versions were always floating in so much cheese and overloaded with tomato sauce.
Here is my version with a moderation of everything. 🙂 Can I say that my own lasagne taste so much better than the restaurants? LOL!
Ingredients for the Ragu
- 400 ground beef
- 2 medium carrots (peeled & diced)
- 1 medium aubergine / eggplant (diced)
- 2 large yellow onion (diced)
- 5 large organic plum tomatoes / 1 tin (400gr) organic chopped tomatoes
- 2 large garlic cloves (crushed)
- 2 tbsp concentrared tomato paste
- 2-3 tbsp sweet paprika powder
- 1 tsp himalayian salt (add more if required)
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup water
Ingredients for the Bechamel Sauce
- 1 1/2 cup semi-skimmed milk
- 1 tbsp flour
- a pinch of himalayian salt
- some ground pepper
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg powder
Other Ingredients
- 6 lasange sheets (this will make 2 layers, 9 sheets will make 3 layers)
- 1/4 cup grated parmesam
- 1/2 cup grated mozzarella (i bought them ready grated)
Method
- Fry onion and carrots in olive oil together until onion is golden brown. Add ground beef, garlic, salt, tomato paste and paprika.
- Fry until the meat is cooked, then add tomatoes, aubergine, water and cover with a lid. Let it cooked in low heat for 30-40 minutes. (I cooked my one in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes and he meat came out so soft!)
- Check it every now and then, add more water if required.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
- Heat up the milk with flour, satt, pepper and nutmeg powder. Keep stiring to avoid the milk sticking to the pot. The milk should have thickened up after a few minutes, add parmesan cheese and stir until it has melted.
- Boil a big pot water half full. Cook the lasagne sheets for 1 minutes and take them all out and place them flat individually on a plate. This is to make it easier to lay on the tray and also to speed up the baking time.
- Add very little ragu on the tray first to avoid lasagne sheets from sticking, line the first sheets of lasagne. Add a thin layer of ragu again, a thin layer of bechamel sauce, and a thin layer of mozarlla cheese. Repeat one or two more times depending on how much meat and becheamel sauce are left.
- Finish off with ragu, mozzarella and parmasan cheeese at the end.
- Bake for 20 or until the cheese is golden brown. Let it cool down slighly for 10 minutes before serving.
- Suitable for freezing.
