Best Lasagne Ever
My version of lasagne uses a rich, slow cooked ragu. This both thickens and reduces the sauce which helps bind your lasagne layers together, but also creates a deep, sauce packed with flavour. Make sure you make a batch of my garlic, rosemary, and parmesan tear and share bread to mop up the juices. You’ll get 6 - 8 portions from this recipe, depending on how greedy you are feeling.
Method
Start by preparing your Béchamel by putting your milk into a medium sized saucepan. add in your onion, cloves, bay leaf, and some salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and then take off the heat and set aside for at least 1 hour to infuse.
To start your ragu heat your olive oil over a medium-high heat until hot and add in your minced beef. Brown the beef all over and then remove into a bowl using a slotted spoon. You might need to do this in batches to ensure you brown the beef and not stew it in it’s juices.
Once browned, drain off any excess oil and add your pancetta to the pan and fry until it is brown and crispy.
Add the onion, celery, and carrot and cook these for 8 - 10 minutes until they are soft.
Add in your tomato puree, garlic, 1 teaspoon of thyme, and your oregano and let these cook out for 1 minute until the mixture is aromatic
Pour in your wine and stir to de-glaze the pan and get all the flavour up off of the bottom and then let this cook for 2 - 3 minutes for most of the alcohol to burn off.
Finally add back in your browned beef mince, passata, beef stock, bay leaf, and some salt and pepper and bring to a simmer, clamp a lid on, turn down the heat and simmer the ragu gently for 1 hour. Once the hour is up take the lid off, stir in your milk and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes until the sauce is rich, and thick. Take out the bay leaf at the end.
While the ragu is cooking you can finish off your béchamel. Start by straining your milk into a jug or large bowl through a seive.
Put your butter into a saucepan on a medium heat and gently melt. Add the flour into the melted butter and stir until it clumps together, forming a thick paste. Continue to stir for 2 more minutes. It should start to smell like biscuits.
Slowly add your strained milk in a little at a time. It will form a thick paste at first, but as your add the milk in it will slowly come together as a sauce.
Simmer the sauce for a few minutes until it has thickened and take off the heat. Grate in your nutmeg, some salt and pepper, and add in your grated gruyere, stirring until it has melted.
You can put a some cling film directly on top of the béchamel to stop it forming a skin while you wait for the ragu to finish.
Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC and then start to form the lasagne. First put a very thin layer of ragu on the base of your baking dish. This stops the pasta sticking to the bottom.
We will then layer up the lasagne with pasta, béchamel and then ragu. Repeating these steps until all the ragu has been used up. You should get 3-4 layers.
Finish the lasagne with a final layer of béchamel, before sprinkling with parmesan and your last teaspoon of thyme. Put the lasagne into your oven and cook for 45 minutes - 1 hour until the top is brown and crispy and the pasta cooked. If the top is looking a bit too brown cover the baking dish with tin foil.
The final step is the most important. Rest the lasagne. Let it sit for 20 - 30 minutes. This will mean your lasagne cuts neatly and not turn into a sloppy pasta soup. But also it’s best eaten slightly cooled.
Ingredients
Ragu
1 tbsp olive oil
600g pack good quality minced beef
100g of pancetta, cubed. Or bacon lardons
1 onion, halved and finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely diced
1 large carrot, finely diced
3 tbsp tomato purée
2 garlic cloves, grated
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
150ml red wine
200g passata
500ml beef stock
1 bay leaf
150ml whole milk
Béchamel Sauce
1.5 litres whole milk
1 onion, thickly sliced
3 bay leaves
3 cloves
100g butter
100g plain flour
good grating of nutmeg
100g Gruyere cheese
50g Parmesan
You will also need
xx dry or fresh pasta sheets
Fairly deep baking dish
Top Tips
Make sure you really reduce the ragu. You want a wooden spoon stired through it to clearly leave a path. A wet ragu will mean a sloppier lasagne at the end.
And don’t forget to rest the finished lasagne, Don’t worry about it getting cold. It will stay a good temperature to eat and you will have a better result at the end.
The ragu recipe is great for all sorts of pasta dishes. Stir income freshly made spaghetti or linguine, bake it with macaroni, or stir in some gnocchi that has been roasted with garlic, rosemary, and olive oil.
Use this version of béchamel to pimp up a tuna pasta bake with extra savoury flavours.
If you have time it is worth making this a day in advance and putting it in the fridge, covered once it has cooled right down. It will taste even better the next day. Just warm it in a 160º oven for 30 - 40 minutes before serving. It also freezes really well.
