World's Best Lasagne --PLUS-- The world's Best Bolognese Sauce
I've been serving this to family and friends for close on two decades. It's actually very, very good because it's been improving all that time. I can never quite remember what's in it; usually whatever's around in the fridge and pantry. But I gave this some extra thought about what makes this taste special, went shopping to get the ingredients, and committed this latest one to paper. AND -- the sauce by itself doubles as the world's best Bolognese. Live it up!
Swerdna's Fabulous Lasagne
Satisfies: Recipe for eight/ten -- adjust quantities for less. I make it this way so I can package it and freeze it as five packs of twin serves. Be careful to use a large baking dish, or perhaps two smaller ones.
Bolognese Meat Sauce
Ingredients
Can of diced or pureed tomatoes
500gm bottle of bought Bolognese sauce
140 gm tomato paste
375 ml beef stock
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons soy sauce
250 ml gutsy red wine
Parsley: 1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley (chopped)
Sage: strip the leaves from 2-3 sprigs and chop them finely
Rosemary: strip leaves from two or three x 10 cm sticks and chop the leaves
Thyme: strip the leaves from stems that total about 20 cm length
Pepper: lots of freshly ground black pepper
Chilli: 1 teaspoon chilli flakes or powder -- or 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper is nice too
Basil: three breakfast cups of chopped basil leaves
Garlic: one head or 9 cloves (peeled and diced finely)
4 rashers of bacon, trimmed and diced
2 leeks, split lengthwise and chop to 1/2 cm semicircles
2 large onions, diced
2 sticks of celery, diced (e.g. split lengthwise into thirds and chop to 1/2 cm)
2 capsicum, diced
800 gm ultra prime beef, no fat, minced
Place a very large, heavy-based pot on the stove and in that put the following: Pureed tomatoes, Bolognese sauce, tomato paste, beef stock, Worcestershire, soy, wine and herbs. Stir and bring to heat.
If you are making lasagne, boil the sauce until 1/3 of the liquid has evaporated. This is not necessary for bolognese sauce, only for lasagne.
Meanwhile put the bacon and leeks in a preheated (middle heat), heavy-based frying pan or wok and stir/toss until the leeks are golden (about 4 mins). Add the garlic for two minutes. Add this to the simmering sauce.
Using no oil, dry-stir fry the capsicum, onion and celery until braised and then add to the simmering sauce.
Split the ground beef into 200 gm portions and braise them in separate portions, dry, no oil, constantly separating the beef with a spatula to create separated, braised grains of beef. Add these to the simmering sauce. Allow the sauce to simmer for 1.5 to two hours stirring occasionally. Near the end, extract 1/4 of the sauce including vegetables etc, blend it to a liquid and add it back into the sauce pot. This will allow the sauce to flow better when creating the lasagne.
When the sauce is cooked you can keep it as a splendid spaghetti or fettucine Bolognese sauce or assemble it into the lasagne as detailed below. Assemble the lasagne when the ingredients are hot.
Bechamel Sauce
Ingredients
80 gm butter
1 litre of milk
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
250 gm Parmesan cheese, loose
250 gm mozzarella cheese, loose
100 gm Parmesan cheese grated for sprinkling on top
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When melted, add flour, stir through very well and cook while stirring for 1 - 2 minutes. Add milk slowly, a portion at a time, stirring each until blended well. Bring back to heat and sprinkle the nutmeg in and stir it through. Add the Parmesan and mozzarella cheese slowly, dissolving it through, constant stirring. Use straight after this preparation is over.
Lasagne: assembly and baking: Assemble while hot.
Grease the very large baking dish or two smaller baking dishes. Put a thin layer of meat sauce then Bechamel sauce then pre-cooked lasagne sheets on top. You can crack the sheets to appropriate pieces to fill in the gaps. repeat the meat sauce/ Bechamel sauce/ pasta sheet cycle until you fill the dish. The last layer is Bechamel. Sprinkle the top with finely grated Parmesan. Bake in a preheated 180C fan forced over for 45 minutes (assuming hot ingredients).
I've been making this since about 1990.
Be as well as you can