How to make Easy Home Made Lasagne

Homemade Lasagne is one of the few things which I let K in the kitchen to prepare on her own.  I have to admit she does produce a spanking one.  And it is especially delicious when served with homemade four cheese bread.  Here's how she does it.

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Ingredients

Pasta dough:  200 gr mix - see easy pasta for details

Meat sauce:
1/2 cup oil
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 kg of mince (ground beef)
750 ml tomato sauce
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
1 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp oregano (OK, we do 2 tsp of our mixed dried herbs)
salt, pepper to taste

Cheese:
500 gr of any mix you like - just make sure some of it will melt nicely like mozzarella.

First, prepare the meat sauce.  Heat the olive oil (and a bit of chilli oil if you are brave) in a largish pot.  Add the chopped onions and garlic and sauté till soft.  Add the mince and brown it off.  Now you can add a Maggi cube at this point - we do 'cause we love the taste. When the meat is all browned off, add all the remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Now, you should let this simmer for about 3 hours, but I am sure K lets it simmer even longer just to make the flavours go through the house and make me even hungrier.  She also is the only one who can do the taste testing after an hour or so to make sure it has enough salt, seasoning etc. Agony for me.

While that is simmering away (it's still too early for wine), prepare your pasta dough and let that sit for the time your sauce is simmering.  Also prepare your cheese.  We like to use a mixture - not critical what types expect that you want at least one which will melt nicely - mozzarella or the like.  Grate what you can and chop what you can't into small bits to spread nicely in the layers of lasagne later.

As everything starts to come together, get your pasta dough and start to roll it out into thin sheets or ideally run it through your pasta maker.  Don't worry if it is not in even squares like the stuff in the box - shape does not affect the taste. 

When you have everything at hand, you are ready to start the building process but not before you have had a sip of wine of course.

Oil the dish lightly and put your first layer of pasta in the bottom.  Note that I have not mentioned cooking this first - it does not need it - the pasta will cook in the juices.  Even the stuff in the box does not need it.  We like our lasagne quite firm so that it slices nicely into pieces for presentation (yeah, like we care about that...).  Next lob some of the sauce in here and spread it on the pasta with the back of a spoon.  Add cheese - don't be shy - and start again - pasta, sauce and cheese.  When you get close to the top of dish make sure your final layer is cheese which will melt and brown nicely - we like Provolone for this and even better the picante variety. 

Your oven should be at 180C.  Get it in there and put the timer on for 30 min.  Keep an eye on it as it should brown on top and bubble up all the juice from the sauce to a burbling delight.  When ready, remove from oven and let it cool for a few minutes before trying to cut.  Serve and I cannot mention this enough with delicious homemade four cheese bread or garlic bread of course.