Lasagna is not my first choice when it comes to eating pasta. But it is a very nice comforting option from time to time. I got inspired from Mihaela’s recipe, the only difference is that I made mine fully lactose free (that is why that sorry fake cheese did not melt on the top).
Lasagna
Stew boiling time: 1.5 hours
Baking time: 30 min
Baking temperature: 200 C
Servings: 6
Difficulty: medium
Ingredients
- 500 g of minced meat
- 1 carrot
- 2-3 celery sticks
- 1 onion
- 100 g of bacon
- 1 cup of water or broth
- 300 g of tomato juice (passatta or canned uncooked tomatoes)
- olive oil to fry
- salt
- black pepper, ground
- oregano to taste
- 40 g of flour
- 40 g of butter
- 450 ml of milk (mine was lactose free)
- nutmeg
- 300 g of mozzarella (I used plant based cheese)
- 10 lasagna sheets, ideally fresh and that require no boiling
Directions
- In a tablespoon of olive oil fry the cubed 100 g of bacon until it gets colored.
- Add the 500 g of minced beef and cook until it gets brown. The fire needs to be medium to high for browning.
- Once the meat is brown, add the cubed carrot, 3 celery sticks cubed and 1 onion cubed.
- Add the tomatoes and 1 cup of water, bring to a boil. Cover the pot and simmer for 1.5 hours stirring occasionally.
- At the end season with salt and pepper and oregano to taste.
- Now the meat sauce is ready, time to prepare the bechamel sauce: start boiling your milk on low fire. In a different pot melt the butter and add the flour and stir for 1-2 min until the roux smells baked. Add the boiled milk and whisk continuously to avoid lumps. When it is thick, season with salt and pepper and freshly ground nutmeg.
- All it takes is to assemble the lasagna: place on the bottom some extra canned tomatoes if you had left or a bit of meat sauce. Add a layer of pasta, then half of your meat sauce, a bit of bechamel and 1/3 of your cheese. Then another layer of pasta, the rest of the meat sauce, a bit of bechamel and 1/3 of your cheese. Last – a layer of pasta, all the bechamel sauce and the last 1/3 of the cheese.
- Bake at 200 C for 30 min. I use the ventilation program, but heat up and down shoudl work to.
- Let it rest min 30 min and enjoy it afterwards or reheated in the microwave the next days.
