Lasagne

[dan101smith]

I really fancy lasagne tonight.

I'm intrigued to hear what the ultimate PH recipe is, so fire away!

[Herbie58]

I always use a Worcester sauce and a little chilli in the meat sauce

And I always layer the top sheet of pasta with thinly sliced chorizo or salami and THEN put the cheese sauce on, which I make with half mozzarella and half applewood smoked cheddar.

I used to make this almost weekly, not tasted it for about 1 year now and I'm dribbling at the thought of it

[shirt]

make own bechemal [google it]

for the 'red' sauce:

oven roast some red onions, peppers, and tomatoes with olive oil & thyme.

heat oil in pan. if using mince [i like ultra lean steak mince as i hate grease but some here will say the fat gives flavour. to each their own] brown it off in a pan.

add sliced roast onion & peppers and pulp the toms and add to the pan. also add chopped black olives, 2-3 cloves minced garlic [personal preference] some pulverised sundried tomatoes, a glug of aged balsamic, and a glass of decent red wine. simmer for a bit then add passata to your personal level of tomatoeyness, shredded basil and finely chopped mushrooms.

start with a brishing of red sauce on the bottom to prevent lasagne sheets sticking. then layer up as pasta [use fresh egg for max. taste] red, bechemel etc. until you reach the top of the dish. i have a 3" deep dish and 4 lasagne sheets is more than plenty [topping spills over the sides]. make sure you finish with a layer of bechemel then grate as much mature cheese as you can fit on there, plus some parmesan/grana pardano and a drizzle of balsamic.

45mins in the oven. done.

if beezlebub has put a plague on your house and there are vegetarians present, cut the meat but otherwise use the same sauce [its fking excellent pasta sauce] but alternate with layers of aubergine and roast peppers with the sauce spooned over the top.

[miniman]

shirt said:

make own bechemal (google it)

Better to google Bechamel

Edited by miniman on Wednesday 3rd March 15:40

[juice]

This

[gadfly]

Home made bechamel sauce, as mentioned - milk, peppercorns, bay leaf, cloves, then mix that with butter and flour, and cheese...then for the meat+sauce, the nicest one I've made I did with a mix of beef, pork and veal mince (because I saw it in the film Goodfellas ), with a sauce made from onion, tomatoes, red wine and oregano. And plenty of garlic (of course).

Dammit, now I fancy lasagne tonight.

[dan101smith]

Thanks all.

The bolognese is bubbling away nicely on the hob now.

Obviously I've left the remainder of the bottle of red I opened to put in it, and am not drinking any of it at all.

AT ALL.

Being unemployed rocks

[condor]

I like to have home made lasagne sheets instead of the bought sheets.

[Don]

I will dig out my ultimate Lasagne recipe tonight.

It is a total ballache to make. Takes half a day. I make my own chicken stock and shred the meat into it and make the Bechemel sauce with that. The beef layers are actually meatballs that I make with chilli, herbs and spices with my own tomato sauce (made myself with tomatoes and basil) poured over. Then the final topping is a little of the bechemel with grated cheeses (Gruyere and Cheddar) I think and grated nutmeg. I blanch dried lasgane sheets rather than making my own.

Fab - but so energy intensive I only do it once a year or so.

[bint]

Mexican Chili Lasagne. Sounds weird, but works - trust me on this!!

Make up chili as you would normally; beef mince, onions, kidney beans, beef stock, tomato puree, cumin, chili powder/flakes etc.

Make a bechamel / cheese sauce using milk, flour, butter, cheese, pepper and nutmeg.

Take a packet of flour tortilla wraps (again, trust me here!)...

Layer chili on the bottom, depending on size of dish, put one or two wraps (ours is the size of one) on top and then a layer of sauce, repeat again and top with cheese.

Bake in an oven at about 180 for 30 mins.

You'll be amazed - the tortilla wraps once cooked are like lasagne sheets - which when you think about it is expected given that they're about the same ingredients.

[TIGA84]

However you make it, leaving it in the fridge for a day improves it 100%.

Seriously. Although I appreciate this may not be practical atm, but hey, there is always next time!

Oh, and make a Bechamel. NOT a cheese sauce. Put cheese on the top if you must, but the white sauce is simply that, a white sauce.

Edited by TIGA84 on Wednesday 3rd March 21:00

[Shaolin]

TIGA84 said:

However you make it, leaving it in the fridge for a day improves it 100%.

+1

The last couple I made I have topped off with thinly sliced courgettes brushed with olive oil (oil before arranging nicely on the lasagne), about 2-3mm thick, cover completely, then add parmesan before putting in the oven.

Home made bechamel obviously.

[craigjm]

resurrecting this thread. Anyone got any recipes to add? I will be making one next week and what to make the best I can.

[dazco]

craigjm said:

resurrecting this thread. Anyone got any recipes to add? I will be making one next week and what to make the best I can.

If it is an 'important' lasagne and you are not too familiar with making it then I would make a practice one first, just to get the ratios right.

For me, I always put in more white sauce (I do add cheese) than seems the dish needs but that's because I have learned that the pasta gobbles it up. But I like sloppy lasagne. Lasagne nowadays seems to have gone in the direction of it being quite a solid dish which I don't like, so you need to make it how you like it.


Leaving it in the fridge, as one poster up above says, does nothing for me. It dries it out and stops it being as wet. But as I say I like my lasagne that way.

For the meat sauce, the only tip I can offer is to use a third each of grated onion, carrot and celery and to lob some red wine into the mince and cook it off before you add the other ingredients.

Edit: Forgot to add that I start the first layer with meat sauce then pasta then white sauce, MS, P, WS, MS, P, WS and on like that depending on the depth of the dish.

Edited by dazco on Saturday 5th April 21:11

[jogon]

Homemade Beef and Pork mince ragu reduced more than if making Bolognese then allowed to rest overnight. Homemade white sauce and parmesan grating on each layer followed by lots of white sauce and buffalo mozzarella on top.

[craigjm]

jogon said:

Homemade Beef and Pork mince ragu reduced more than if making Bolognese then allowed to rest overnight. Homemade white sauce and parmesan grating on each layer followed by lots of white sauce and buffalo mozzarella on top.

recipe?

[craigjm]

dazco said:

If it is an 'important' lasagne and you are not too familiar with making it then I would make a practice one first, just to get the ratios right.

For me, I always put in more white sauce (I do add cheese) than seems the dish needs but that's because I have learned that the pasta gobbles it up. But I like sloppy lasagne. Lasagne nowadays seems to have gone in the direction of it being quite a solid dish which I don't like, so you need to make it how you like it.

Oh yeah i will definitely be doing a practice run! I have in the past thought they were lacking in white sauce so your tip to use more than you think is helpful thanks.

[sleep envy]

dazco said:

Lasagne nowadays seems to have gone in the direction of it being quite a solid dish which I don't like, so you need to make it how you like it.

Agree that you should make dishes the way you like them but lasagne is 'supposed' to be a reasonably dry dish. Wet pasta is an English preference.

[dazco]

sleep envy said:

dazco said:

Lasagne nowadays seems to have gone in the direction of it being quite a solid dish which I don't like, so you need to make it how you like it.

Agree that you should make dishes the way you like them but lasagne is 'supposed' to be a reasonably dry dish. Wet pasta is an English preference.

Probably so, I know the way I like it is a lot sloppier than most. We had one in a good restaurant in Orlando and it was so dry it was atrocious, we had to send it back. In fact we didn't send it back, the maitre d (sp) saw us struggling and took it away with apologies.
That lasagne was made with ricotta cheese as the only form of white sauce, a traditional way of making it seemingly and, again, I could not argue.


But something in the back of my mind seems to remember that if the lasagne was served dry-ish then a sauce would be added upon serving.

[jogon]

craigjm said:

recipe?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/classic_lasagne_07638

This is a good base but I make my ragu slightly differently by softening the onions, carrots, chopped thyme and sage first then adding the mince to it then turn up the heat to brown it well until you get a nice crisp. Deglaze with red or white wine (lighter taste if you use white wine and chicken stock rather than red and beef stock). Once wine is reduced turn down the heat slightly and add tablespoon of tomato puree and cook for a few minutes then add 400g tomato passata and same of either chicken or beef stock then bring to the boil. Once boiling reduce the heat, add a good glug of milk and partially cover to gently simmer away but give it a stir every 10 mins or so, season to taste, and take off once your happy with consistency. Needs reducing more than Bolognese imo and can take over an hour.

Layer as the recipe states but if you use the firm lasagne sheets blanche them separately otherwise they stick together and make sure you leave enough white sauce to cover the top with a good layer and don't be tight with the mozzarella.