JP Food: Lasagne of love

I’ve used the same authentic Lasagne recipe for over a decade now but recently I’ve found myself scouring through my vast supply of cookbooks looking for new inspiration to already tried and tested family favourite recipes.

While flicking through my books last week I came across ‘Lasagne of Love’ by Nigella Lawson from her fabulous cook book ‘ Cook, Eat, Repeat’ and I remembered how frequently people posted about how good this recipe was on many of the foodie social media groups I follow.

Ingredients: (Feeds 8 people)

350g mince beef

350g mince pork

800g tomato passata

500ml of beef stock

2 carrots

2 onions

1 stick of celery

Teaspoon of garlic powder

4 teaspoons of tomato puree

150g streaky bacon / rindless pancetta

½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes

200ml red wine

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon freshly chopped thyme

Small bunch of chopped flat leaf parsley

1 teaspoon of sea salt

2 teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper

3-4 tablespoons of olive oil

10- 12 lasagne pasta sheets (I don’t make my own, but fresh pasta sheets are great here)

Bechamel Sauce:

800ml milk

100g plain flour

100g unsalted butter

½ teaspoon nutmeg

3 teaspoons of tomato puree

3 tablespoons of grated parmesan

Topping:

1 full bag of grated mozzarella

Generous grating of parmesan cheese all over

Freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Finely chopped the onions or pop them into a food processor and add to a large heavy past pan with the oil and on a medium heat cook them for 15 minutes. I used a cast iron casserole pan.
2. Using the same processor add the carrots, celery, herbs, streaky bacon and garlic and pulse everything together but not too finely that it turns to mulch!
3. Heat your oven to 170 degrees / 150 Fan. Then scrape every piece of the mixture in on top of the onions and mix everything together and cook on high heat for 5 minutes then reduce the heat and cook for another 5 minutes until. Then add in the chilli flakes and cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Add the wine, tomato puree, passata (or tins of chopped tomatoes), beef stock, bay leaves and seasoning and bring to a bubble for about 10 minutes.
5. Clamp down a lid and place into the pre-heated oven for an hour. Then start making the bechamel sauce.
6. Melt the butter over a moderate heat; add the flour and cook for two minutes whisking constantly to get rid of the taste of raw flour. Add the other ingredients to the milk in a large measuring jug and in three pouring’s add to the butter and flour mixture, whisking all the time to ensure the sauce has no lumps and until it is nice and thick.
7.  You are now ready to start building the lasagne. I stuck to tradition with meat sauce, followed by pasta, then bechamel sauce; repeating until you have no meat sauce left. The finish with a final layer of pasta sheets, remaining bechamel sauce and adorn with the grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Cover in foil pop into a preheated oven at 180 Degrees fan for 40 – 45 minutes. Remove the foil and leave to bake and brown for another 20 – 30 minutes, until it’s slightly scorched in parts and buddling! Leave to stand for 20 – 30 minutes before diving in and trying to cut into portions; it will adhere better and won’t fall apart on you once left to stand but will still be piping hot inside.

This freezes really well and is great for batch cooking.

You can get ahead and build the lasagne the day before.

If doing so I would add another 15 minutes to the initial cooking time in the oven to allow it to cook through.