Lasagne Nostrane - Our Lasagna

Lasagne are one of the best baked pasta dishes ever created, it is the proper Italian comfort food. Warm, saucy, cheesy mmmmmm!! Amanda & myself certainly love the most common version, the ones with a rich tomato based meat sauce and a silky smooth home-made white sauce. You can , obviously, use the stuff from jars that have been produced wherever, whenever and most importantly using a lot of preservatives to keep them in the jar for ages, but nothing beats a delicious freshly made meat sauce and/or white sauce. I have been meaning to put our take on the classic lasagne for ages so here it is and as I said it is quite rich so we nearly always have leftovers which Amanda and myself have for lunch the following day. You can also leave the lasagne to cool down and divide it into portions and freeze them to whenever you need them. Our take on lasagne is heavily influenced by Amanda's mother, I can remember that whenever she used to prepare it for us, I always (without fail) asked for seconds. Please try and do your own meat and béchamel sauces as they are so tasty and surely more genuine. Give it a go, you will need...

For the meat sauce

• 500g lean beef mince
• 500ml tomato passata
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste dissolved in 200ml boiling water
• Worcestershire sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 Knorr beef stock pot or Oxo cube
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Vegetable oil

For the white sauce

• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 700ml whole milk, at room temperature
• Ground black pepper, to taste
• 200g ham, chopped
• 200g Edam or Cheddar cheese grated
• Small bunch of parsley, finely chopped (optional)

• 12-15 sheets uncooked lasagne

1. Start preparing the meat sauce by heating some oil in a saucepan along with the garlic. As soon as the garlic turns golden add the mince, Worcestershire sauce and some freshly ground black pepper and cook the mince until brown, drain excess fat in a bowl or leave all fat to evaporate and mince is dry, about 10-15 minutes. Now add the passata, tomato paste in boiling water, sugar and stock pot or cube and give it a good stir. Simmer covered on medium heat for about 20 minutes. Take off the heat and set aside.
2. Now it's time for the white sauce, melt the butter and add the flour on low heat. Stir constantly until you get a golden but not brown roux. Now, start adding the milk to the roux gradually, make sure you keep stirring all the time so as not to get any lumps. Keep stirring until you use all the milk and until you get a thick silky sauce. Season with some black pepper. Now add most of the grated cheese (leaving some aside), chopped ham and parsley (if using) and stir well always on low heat until the cheese is melted. Take off the heat and set aside.
3. Preheat the oven at 180°C.
4. To assemble the lasagne, get an oven dish (preferably rectangular) and spread some meat sauce, lay 3 lasagne sheets and then cover with white sauce, sprinkle some grated cheese, repeat the process until you use all the sauces, cheese and lasagne sheets. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden. Serve hot!

Enjoy!!

R&A

Pumpkin & Courgette Lasagna

These delicious lasagne are made as the title obviously says with pumpkin and zucchine. Unfortunately during Halloween, pumpkins in the UK are just used for carving and the flesh discarded, which is a pity as they can be used in various recipes, from savoury to sweet. Here in the UK they mostly use the butternut squash which is similar to pumpkin. Well luckily, that said it was a very big advantage for us as we bought two massive pumpkins for just £1 each, chopped them into chunks and froze them in freezer bags as by the way they only appear during Halloween over here. Back to the lasagne, this is prepared with layers of grilled zucchine, sliced mozzarella, single cream and delicious pumpkin and bacon purée. The most time consuming procedure of this recipe is preparing and grilling the zucchine, which you can always prepare in advance if you like. If you do not have or you cannot find pumpkin you can do this with butternut squash. Also, if you want some delicious vegetarian lasagne just leave the bacon part out! If you omit the cream, the lasagne will end up very dry so do use it, you can use light cream or even milk thickened with flour instead. Anyhow here are the ingredients that you will need...

• 4 large zucchine/courgettes, sliced lengthwise
• 1.5 kg pumpkin, cut into large pieces
• 3 mozzarella balls [375g], sliced
• 100g streaky bacon, chopped into small pieces (optional)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 150ml single cream
• 250g lasagne sheets
• Pinch ground nutmeg
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• Olive oil

How to...

1. Firstly prepare the zucchine. Start by brushing them with olive oil, then grill them until soft. [The thinner you slice them, the quicker they will cook]. When done put them on a plate with kitchen roll and set them aside.
2. Next fry the onion in 2 tbsp of olive oil until soft and transparent. When the onion is done, add the bacon and the garlic and cook until the bacon is golden. Set aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Put the pumpkin in a large oven tray skin side up, add a small glass of water. Bake in the hot oven for about 30 minutes. When cooked, carefully peel the skin off or scoop the flesh with a teaspoon.
4. Next put the cooked pumpkin together with the onion/bacon mixture in a blender, add some olive oil and the nutmeg, season well with salt & pepper and blend until you get a smooth purée.
5. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
6. Now it is time to start layering the lasagne. Start by pouring some cream, then some pumpkin mixture, then lasagne sheets, then another layer of pumpkin purée, sliced zucchine, mozzarella slices, then start all over again and continue until you have used all of the ingredients. Be careful not to press the lasagne sheets too much, just put them loosely.
7. When done, put in the hot oven and bake until the top is brown and bubbly. Around 30 to 45 minutes.

Enjoy!!!!

R&A