Newsletter # 17 – Lasagne

Traditional lasagne ticks most the boxes when it comes to comfort food. But it can be so much more as it lends itself to a number of variations including seafood, chicken, and vegetarian and let’s not forget gluten free pasta.

Within my own community lasagne is a go-to dish that is offered as a wellness meal, and I am often asked for the recipe; so here it is.

But first let’s have a look at a common problem – estimating the amounts of the sauces and pasta you need; having too much sauce finds you searching for a supplementary lasagne baker; having too little sauce means you are going to have to make more sauce.

Firstly, your lasagne baker should be 6cm – 7cm deep. Bakers made from glazed ceramic, glass or enameled cast iron is best

Next check the volume of your baking dish (if you don’t already know it). This can be done by filling your dish with a measured amount of water. The one I am using takes 3 litres; hence the finished product will be approximately 3 kilograms, which will give you 10 -12 portions.

Standard packets of lasagne sheets are 375g (fresh or dried). You don’t have a lot of options here, but surplus fresh pasta can be frozen, and the dried variety can go back in the pantry. Depending on the dimensions of your baker you may have to cut the pasta to size. The 375g pkt was just enough.

The meat sauce can account for 50% of the weight of the finished lasagne.

The cheese sauce will add a further 30%.

So, for the 3kg lasagne I will need 1.5 kg meat sauce and 900ml of cheese sauce to add to the 375g pasta and the grated cheese to top the lasagne.

Finally, most lasagne sheets are sold ‘instant’ or ‘ready to bake’. If you are using the dried variety your sauces will have to be slightly thinner. Alternatively, the dried lasagne sheets would benefit from quickly dipping the pasta in warm/hot water as you use each sheet.

You’ll need a medium sized lidded saucepan for this recipe.

Lasagne

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Course: Main Course

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Ingredients for the 1.5 litres meat sauce:

• 20 ml olive oil
• 120 g onion finely chopped
• 120 g carrot finely chopped
• 120 g celery finely chopped
• 1 tsp garlic crushed
• 800 g lean beef mince
• 20 g plain flour
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 400 g can crushed tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 2 cups rich brown beef stock
• 1 cup dry red wine
• salt and pepper
• chilli flakes – optional
• worcestershire sauce - optional

Ingredients for Mornay sauce:

• 800 ml full cream milk
• 1 onion peeled
• 2 clove
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 black peppercorns
• 40 g butter
• 35 g plain Flour
• salt
• ground white pepper
• 200 g grated cheese – Gruyere cheddar, parmesan mix

Pasta sheets:

• 375 g lasagne sheets
• Hot water (if you are using dried lasagne sheets)
• 200 g cheese mix

Method

 

Meat Sauce

1. Prepare your ingredients
   
2. In your saucepan, heat the oil and sweat the onion, carrot, celery and garlic for about 4 – 5minutes. A little colour is OK
   
3. Add the mince and break up by stirring until there are no large lumps of mince. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes, until most of the moisture has evaporated.
   
4. Stir in tomato paste. Cook for a further 1 minute. Take off heat.
   
5. Stir in the flour – enough to absorb the fat and oil. Place back on the stove and cook for a further 1 minute
6. Stir in the stock and tomatoes.
   
7. Add the herbs. Turn the heat down to low.
   
8. Give the sauce a stir before lidding the saucepan
9. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally
10. After 1 hour take lid off. Stir occasionally for 20 minutes
11. Add red wine. Take out the bay leaf and thyme sprigs and discard. Ready.
    
12. Keep warm, ready to assemble your lasagne
    

Mornay sauce

1. Mornay sauce is a derivative sauce from a French ‘mother sauce’ – béchamel. Previous newsletters have looked at both espagnole and tomato sauces. Bechamel  or White sauce is the base for many other  sauces including Mustard, Nantua, Dill and Horseradish. You’ll need a small saucepan, whisk, spatula and a strainer plus a bowl to heat the milk, for this recipe.
   
2. Push the 2 cloves into the onion, do the same with the bay leaf by making a small incision with a knife
   
3. Place the onion, cloves and bay leaf in the milk
   
4. Heat the milk to just under simmering temperature. Do not boil the milk
5. In a saucepan melt the butter and add the flour to form a roux.
   
6. Cook on a medium heat for about 1 minute. Avoid browning the roux. Take off the heat and cool slightly
   
7. Remove the onion from the hot milk and discard.
8. Add the hot milk to the roux. Whisk until the roux has dissolved. Return the saucepan to the heat and continue whisking
9. The milk will thicken and then boil. Turn heat to low and continue whisking for 1 minute. Take off the heat. At this stage you have prepared Bechamel
10. Stir in the grated cheese until it has melted.
11. Strain the sauce. Ready. Keep warm ready to assemble your lasagne

Assembly:

1. Set your oven at 170c
2. In your baker cover the bottom with about 3mm of mornay sauce
   
3. Place one lasagne sheet on the mornay sauce
   
4. Cover the pasta with one quarter of meat sauce
   
5. Add another pasta sheet, followed by another ¼ of the meat sauce
6. The next layer will be lasagne sheet followed by a layer of mornay sauce
7. The next two layers will be pasta sheets and meat sauce
8. Top the last meat sauce with pasta sheet and cover with the rest of the mornay sauce
9. Finally top the mornay sauce with the cheese mix
   
10. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until the cheese is golden brown and the sauces are bubbling.
    

Notes

Milk can burn easily – make sure you regulate the temperature and stir constantly.
I find that the microwave can heat the milk perfectly (without stirring)
Grate the cheese directly from the block. Avoid pre- grated packaged cheese for the sauce. If you have no alternative but pre-grated, avoid boiling the sauce after you add the cheese.  I used Jarlsberg cheese which is a good substitute for Gruyere cheese.

Portion leftovers and freeze them in labelled containers.