Lasagne, lasagne, lasagne, where to start? Very early on in my cooking life I enjoyed making Lasagne for my children aaaand, they really enjoyed eating it too. As my children got older this was one of those dishes they gradually started falling out of love with, which meant I made it less and less. Food blogging has certainly made me revisit recipes that were staples in our diets and reinvent them in a new way that we can enjoy again and I’m hoping that you will enjoy too. Recently when I used Afelia’s Lasagne recipe to make my lasagne my children said, and I quote, it was “the best lasagne ever!”, but they were quick to remind me not to get “gassed about it” too. I was like “whatever!”. My head is the size of a watermelon right now. Lol.

So I set about experimenting with ingredients for my bolognese to try and please my greatest critics, AKA my children! I’m a great believer that you can add any sort of ingredients to a dish, ones that might not even be traditionally associated with that recipe, provided it tastes good – I mean the most important factor is what the finished dish tastes like right? At least that’s what matters to me most. I decided to add ingredients that I love using in my cooking in general, that add heaps of flavour without being so obvious, things like soy sauce, Worcester sauce and plenty of herbs and spices.

I always use dry lasagne sheets and never preboil them, and never have, I just ensure my bolognese is saucy with enough liquid in it to be able to cook the lasagne sheets through. I never add extra water to my mince, mainly because I leave the bag of mince in a bowl of cold water to help draw out the excess blood without having to actually take it out and wash it (and make a mess in the process), I then drain it all in a colander. The water not only cleans the mince but will also help to provide moisture when it cooks. If your bolognese seems too dry, for whatever reason, just add some extra water to it when simmering to keep it saucy. If you use fresh lasagne sheets, you may want to reduce the sauce of the bolognese slightly to stop it from becoming a soppy mess.

Bechamel sauce is very easy to make from scratch, this is simply a white sauce made of butter, plain flour, milk and seasoning. By adding cheese to the sauce, we turn it into a cheese sauce, one that I personally think tastes waaaay better than a sauce without cheese. Yes, admittedly it adds more calories to the dish, but I like to think of lasagne as a special dish that isn’t made on a weekly basis, so indulging in this way doesn’t make me feel guilty. If however you do make this more regularly than myself, you can always skip the cheese (and the taste, so just don’t do it, lol). The herbs/spices added to the cheese sauce make it taste very unique, in fact I think the combo of sage, nutmeg and white pepper work really well in making the sauce something rather special. They are strong flavours, especially the sage and nutmeg, so use sparingly.

As you will have noticed by now if you have followed any of my other recipes, I tend to use some Asian spices in my ‘world’ cuisines, I just feel that the spices help to elevate the dishes and make them better. The change in taste is amazing without being obviously detectable in the recipe itself, for this recipe i use only mixed curry powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. I don’t feel chilli powder is necessary in a lasagne but feel free to add it should you want a kick to your bolognese.

The main thing to remember is you want a lot of moisture in the lasagne, once sealed with the last layer of white sauce and grated cheese, all that moisture will help to cook through the dry lasagne sheets. I really want you all to love this recipe as much as my kids do now, I think it’s rather good and want to hear what you think too!

Serves 6

You will need: for Afelia’s Lasagne

For the bolognese:
900g mutton mince
1 large onion
6 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
1 tbsp oil
1.5 tsp salt (taste and adjust if necessary)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 tsp curry powder (I use either Bolsts Mild Mixed curry powder or TRS Madras curry powder for this)
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp Worcester sauce

For the cheese sauce:
6 tbsp butter
6 tbsp plain flour
1 pint of milk
100g mature cheddar
pinch of sage, nutmeg and ground white pepper
1/2 tsp salt
water as needed (I used a little water to loosen the sauce)

For layering lasagne:
10 – 11 lasagne sheets
100g mature cheddar grated (this is used for the top of the lasagne, so don’t add it to the bolognese)

Method:

I measured out all the ingredients I needed for the cheese sauce (bottom left photo), you literally only need a pinch of sage, nutmeg and ground white pepper to season the sauce as they’re quite strong flavours. Using mature cheddar gives the sauce a fuller flavour, if you want a healthier lasagne leave the cheese in the sauce out.

In the bottom right photo I have measured out 1 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 2 tbsp tomato puree, 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp Worcester sauce,

Start by peeling and dicing 1 large onion, 6 cloves of garlic and finely blitzing 2 carrots in a food processor.

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large non stick pan and add the diced onion and diced garlic once hot.

Saute for a few minutes until lightly brown in colour.

Once the onions look slightly brown as in the top left photo, add the mince, followed by 1.5 tsp salt.

Mix and cover to cook through for 5 minutes until the mince is brown and has released water.

Once the mince has released water add all of the following ingredients: 1 can chopped tomatoes, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 2 tbsp tomato puree, 2 tbsp soy sauce….

….1 tbsp Worcester sauce and the 2 blitzed carrots.

Give everything a good mix, have a taste of the sauce and adjust the salt if you feel you need it.

It’s very important to cover the mince while it cooks as we want to retain all the moisture and avoid this evaporating during the cooking process as this is what will help cook the lasagne sheets through. Cover and allow to simmer over a low heat whilst you prepare the cheese sauce.

In a good non stick pan melt 6 tbsp of butter.

Once fully melted add 6 tbsp of plain flour and stir till all the flour is absorbed into the butter, fry for a minute or two to remove the raw taste from the flour.

Measure 1 pint of milk (approx. 570ml), using warm milk helps to prevent the sauce from forming lumps, heat in the microwave or in a pan.

Add the milk SLOWLY, a little at a time, always ensuring the milk is absorbed into the roux (butter and flour mixture) before adding more milk.

With each addition of milk make sure you use your spoon (a wooden one works best for this) to beat out any lumps in the roux.

After adding the first dash of milk, this is what the roux looked like (top left photo).

I continued to add milk GRADUALLY till it looked like each of the photos (bottom left and right). I have included photos of each stage so that those of you that may have never made a white sauce from scratch are familiar with the process.

Eventually the roux will stop looking like a roux and more like a sauce, keep mixing and adding milk till you have used all of the milk up. Simmer the sauce over a gentle heat to help thicken it.

The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon and not run off immediately.

Add the pinch of sage, nutmeg and ground white pepper at this stage….

….followed by 100g of mature cheddar. Don’t be lazy like me and add the cheddar in blocks, using grated cheddar is better as it melts quicker, lol!

Once the cheese has melted, check the consistency of the sauce. I felt my sauce was a little too thick after adding the cheese so I added a splash of water to loosen it, add one tbsp at a time to avoid making the sauce too runny.

Again check the consistency of the sauce, it should coat the back of a spoon and when you run your finger through the sauce it should leave a clean line, as in the bottom left photo, that’s when you know your sauce is thick enough.

Turn off the heat and immediately cover the pan with clingfilm to prevent the sauce forming a skin. For the first few minutes you may want to leave a gap in the clingfilm to allow the steam to escape, once cooler, seal completely till the sauce is ready to use.

By now your bolognese will be cooked through but should have enough liquid in it to also cook the lasagne sheets. The top right photo shows you what the cooked filling will look like, as you can see the bolognese is quite saucy.

Select a dish that is wide and long enough to fit the lasagne sheets without having to break them up too much.

Divide the bolognese into three portions and start to evenly layer the first portion into your chosen dish.

Place lasagne 3 lasagne sheets over the top of the bolognese.

Next add a layer of cheese sauce, again imagine you have to divide the sauce into 3 portions and add enough to cover the sheets.

Continue layering the bolognese and lasagne sheets (I added a broken sliver of lasagne sheet to fill in the gap at the edge, bottom right photo)….

….and cheese sauce in this order, till you have used up all the bolognese and sauce.

When I got to my last layer of lasagne sheets I felt the cheese sauce had cooled and thickened too much to be able to spread over my sheets, so I added a little more water to the sauce to loosen it. Don’t be afraid to adjust the sauce if you feel you need to.

You should end up with three layers of meat, lasagne sheets and cheese sauce, finishing with a layer of cheese sauce on top.

Sprinkle the remaining 100g of grated cheddar and then pop the lasagne into a hot preheated oven, gas mark 6 (200°C or 400°F) and bake for 30 mins or until the lasagne looks brown and bubbly on top and the sheets are cooked through.

Serve with your favourite salad and enjoy!

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