Thread: PAG's Lasagne

Been probably a few years since I made one of these, so now's the time. This will be a large one, with most being portioned up and into the freezer. I made the meat sauce the day before (yesterday) to let the flavours intensify in the fridge overnight.

OK, first off, frying a couple of chopped onions and some streaky smoked bacon in olive oil.



Then chopped carrot and celery added.



Some red wine added, and allowed to evaporate.



Now the turn of the meat, in this case a 50/50 mix of beef and pork mince. Once the mince had browned, more red wine went in and heated until evaporated.



A mix of tomato passata, chopped fresh tomato, and tomato puree went in, everything mixed, and cooked on a very low flame for 5 hours.



Lastly, a cup of fresh cream added, another 5 minutes cooking, then allowed to cool.

This morning made the white sauce. Started by frying some thinly sliced leek in some butter.



Once the leek had softened, some flour added and stirred in.



Milk then gradually added, and cooked for a further 10 minutes.



Then used a hand blender to turn into a wet puree.



Some grated cheese and nutmeg added, stirred in to melt the cheese.



Put to one side in the fridge.

Going to make the pasta sheets. Made my own pasta quite often, but first time for lasagne. As usual, I mix '00' and semolina flour to give a coarser pasta (the sauce sticks to it better).



In a bowl, added a spoon of olive oil to the flour.



Followed by the eggs. The ratio is 100g flour/one egg.



This all gets mixed in the bowl with one hand until the dough incorporates all the ingredients, and the bowl is pretty much clean.



the pasta is kneaded on a lightly floured surface with both hands for around 10 minutes. When it's the consistency of play dough, it's ready. Wrapped in clingfilm and in the fridge for 30 minutes.

I assembled the lasagne on the outside table. I can clamp the pasta machine there, which I can't do in the kitchen. Getting everything ready.



I'm rolling out the pasta sheets and cutting them to size as I'm building the lasagne.



Start with a layer of meat sauce on the bottom.



Followed by the white sauce, onto which I add some freshly grated parmesan.



The pasta sheets are put in place, and the build continues another 3 times. Finally, the last pasta sheets are covered in white sauce, and grated cheese (cheddar and parmesan) added.



40 minutese at 190C, and she's ready.



Very tasty, though I'll make the pasta sheets a little thicker next time, having read a recommendation for them to be thin.

Fantastic! You really put the effort into it!

I make a decent lasagne, but that looks, as usual, terrific PAG.

And I hope somewhat forlornly that red wine will drop in price this year.

Respecto! The last time I made lasagna 'from scratch' I still relied on store bought pasta. My meat sauce was very similar to yours, without the cream. I used no leeks. I made the bechamel sauce with half an onion that got removed before assmbling the layers. It came out pretty well. The thing is that even with those adjustments the kitchen still looked like a whirlwind had passed through and it took an age to clean everything. I resolved at that point not to revisit that recipe. Now I see yours and I feel inspired - as soon as I hire a full-time maid to wash up.

Looks good I like most pasta but seldom Lasagne , but that looks irrisistable.

A similar layer technique in Greek classic uses Potato Lamb and Aubergine /Eggplant result is aka Moose

sorry Moussaka

Superb PAG!

Originally Posted by david44

Looks good I like most pasta but seldom Lasagne , but that looks irrisistable.

A similar layer technique in Greek classic uses Potato Lamb and Aubergine /Eggplant result is aka Moose

sorry Moussaka

I love moussaka but her indoors doesn’t like lamb and the kids don’t like eggplant so I don’t have much chance to cook or eat it.