Lasagne

Description

A hearty Italian dinner, perfect for the night before a big race. The more the better if you get this dish right. Goes great with a good salad and a baguette.

Ingredients

Ragu Sauce

Oil (preferably Olive)

Beef mince (500g)

Tinned tomatoes (500g)

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

1 courgette

2 small peppers

Some mushrooms

Tomato Puree

Red Wine (not necessary but gives it a great taste)

Vegetable stock cube (again, not necessary but worth a go)

Mixed Herbs/Basil

Salt and Pepper

Béchamel sauce

Flour (25g)

Butter (25g)

Milk (600ml)

Cheese (200g)

As well as

Ready to cook Lasagne sheets (several)

Salad

Tomatoes

Cooking equipment

Oven

2 pans

Oven proof dish (nice and deep for plenty of layers)

Spatula

Serving spoon

Directions

· Firstly you’ll need to make up your Ragu sauce as it takes the longest but can be left to simmer while you get other things ready

Ragu Sauce

· Chop up all your vegetables keeping your onions and garlic separate. Make sure you’ve got everything ready to go in the sauce.

· Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pan and add the onions and garlic, cooking until lightly browned.

· Add the mince and cook, stirring constantly until brown on a nice high heat.

· Mix in a couple of table spoons of tomato puree and your herbs stirring in until well mixed.

· Poor in some red wine and stir again until absorbed or evaporated

· Put in your chopped tomatoes constantly mixing, also mix in the rest of your chopped vegetables, adding the stock cube, some more herbs, a dash more wine and some salt and pepper.

· Bring to the boil and then simmer with the lid on, this should be left for about 45 minutes, but the longer it’s left the better it should be.

Next

· Pre-heat your oven to about 180^oc

· Butter up the inside of your oven proof dish and start to make you béchamel sauce

Béchamel Sauce

· Melt the butter in a pan and mix in the flour so it’s a weird yellow paste.

· Slowly pour in the milk bit by bit and mix in the yellow paste so there are no lumps

· When all the milks in, mix in the cheese bit by bit until it’s melted, it should start to thicken up nicely. This should take about 15 minutes altogether

Next

· Layer up the Ragu, béchamel and lasagne in your oven proof dish. To do it properly the Ragu and béchamel sauce shouldn’t really be in the same layer but I couldn’t give a damn whether they are or not.

· To finish off your top layer of lasagne, poor on any remaining béchamel sauce, grate on some cheese and add some sliced tomatoes to make it look pretty.

· Whack it in the oven for about 45 minutes.

· Serve with a nice green salad, a few tomatoes and a baguette; job’s a good-un.