Just 4 days to our trip to the US yay!! So this will be the last recipe until the end of September I’m afraid. I made this lasagna last weekend and it was really nice! Everything was homemade including the white sauce or besciamella. I packed the lasagna with plenty of vegetables, and the meat was organic too, so overall was quite an healthy meal.
Ingredients :Â
500g of mince beef
1 big onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 or 3 bay leaves
6 tomatoes
Some passata / can of chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup
2 carrots
2 bunch of spinach
lasagna pasta sheets
3 slices of cheddar or some grated mozzarella
a handful of grated parmigiano reggiano
some sort of alcohol like beer or cider, white wine or whiskey
Spices : black pepper, dry chilies, salt, paprika, parsley
For the white sauce : olive oil, flour and hot milk, salt, black pepper and nutmeg.
Method :
Start frying the onion with the olive oil, bay leaves and garlic, when soft add the meat and all the spices and fry for awhile, until meat changes color, then add the booze and let it evaporate .
After add all tomatoes,carrots, washed, chopped, passata and ketchup, let it simmer for a good 30 to 40m. 5minutes before the end put in the spinach.
While the meat cooks, do the white sauce, it’s very easy but requires your full attention. In a pan heat a bit the olive oil ( if you want add a bit of butter like a teaspoon like I did) and add the flour, I didn’t measure anything, I added things until it looked right. Keep mixing without stopping the oil with the flour and add slowly the hot milk, always stirring, when it gets silky and just right thick take it off the heat, it’s ready.
If you buy fresh pasta it’s much easier, you just need to assemble the lasagna e bake, I didn’t I used the dry one so I had to soak the sheets in boiling water for 30seconds. Once that’s done you start assembling. Choose a big enough tray, quite deep too. First put the lasagna sheets, cover them with the meat, add another layer of the pasta cover it with white sauce and some cheese, on top of that more meat, and finally the last layer of lasagna, on top lots of white sauce and all the cheese that it’s left.
Bake for 30m at 200 degrees or until golden brown.
TIP: If the lasagna it’s still hard on top but it doesn’t have enough sauce to cook with pour some milk on top of it and lt it bake a bit more, you won’t taste it at all, I didn’t need it this time, but last time I had too, and it was my partner’s father that told us how to do it, and he is an italian from the south, so he knows 😉
I’m not going to lie and say it’s really quick because it’s not, but if you want to treat your family to a very nice homemade meal,this is the way to go, or if you simply enjoy some kitchen days like me 🙂
This week I didn’t have much chance to go to the gym, just managed 2 hours, but once I came back from my holidays and move house, I will get back on track.
So, take care, and until my return! I will update my facebook with pictures of some of the american food, so if you want to see that, add me 🙂  here  https://www.facebook.com/fionabluerecipes?ref=hl
Lots of love xxx
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