Lasagne is an Italian dish that is hard to prepare but it is delicious after all that effort. Lasagna, originally, is the name of the pot that lasagne cooked, but eventually, today it is used for the dish itself.
Lasagne, which is prepared using a lot of tomato sauce, origins back to 13th century. Tomato was not introduced to Europe at that date, so the original recipe for lasagne contains different types of cheese. Today, one of the most preferred recipe is the recipe with Bolognese sauce in which meat is a must and prepared using plenty of cheese.
An interesting fact that I came across while I was doing a little research on lasagne is that, you can actually cook lasagne in a dishwasher. After you put all the ingredients in a dish and covering it with aluminum foil tightly, you can easily cook it by switching your dishwasher heated dryer mode on. Even I am sure that you are not going to try, I have to say: “Please do not try at home”.
Lasagne is a filling dish which requires a little bit more effort than most of the dishes because of the preparation of separate sauces, large number of ingredients and the way it is made. You can reduce the effort if you prefer oven-ready lasagne sheets. But be sure that, when you taste it, you will see that it is worth all the effort.
For 5-6 people...
Ingredients
Main Ingredients:
12 lasagne sheets
2 cups grated mozzarella
For Bolognese sauce:
300 gr lean minced meat
⅓ cup olive oil
4 middle sized tomatoes
1 middle sized carrot
1 middle sized onion
1 banana pepper
1 red bell pepper
4-5 mushrooms (optional)
4 cloves garlic
1.5 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon paprika paste
Spices for Bolognese sauce:
A pinch of salt
1 bay leaf
Black pepper (optional)
Chili powder (optional)
Dried thyme (optional)
Dried basil (optional)
TIP: Usually, bay leaves are used to enhance smell and taste of meat and added while the meat is cooked. After meat is cooked, they are removed.
For Bechamel sauce:
3 tablespoons butter
2 fully filled tablespoons flour
3.5 cups milk
Instructions:
1. Grate carrots and tomatoes for Bolognese sauce. Cut peppers, mushrooms, onion, and garlic into small pieces.
2. Add all the olive oil into the saucer that you are going to fry minced meat and heat up a little bit.
3. Put minced meat and bay leaf with all spices into heated pan and start frying.
4. After 1-2 minutes, put onion and garlic that you have previously cut into the pan.
5. Add tomato and paprika paste just before onion is cooked and continue mixing.
6. Put carrot, mushroom, tomato and pepper into the pan and cook.
7. Remove cooked Bolognese sauce from pan and allow it to cool while you are preparing Bechamel sauce.
NOTE: Remove the bay leaf after you are done with cooking.
8. Melt butter in a saucepan.
9. Add flour into saucepan with melted butter and heat.
10. Keep mixing while adding milk slowly over heated flour. You can remove the saucepan from stove when it gets consistency.
11. Spread a ladle of Bechamel sauce over the bottom of the dish that you are going to prepare lasagne in.
12. Place lasagne sheets over Bechamel sauce to cover bottom of the dish completely.
13. Cover lasagne sheets with Bechamel sauce again.
14. Spread a couple of tablespoon Bolognese sauce over Bechamel sauce and add desired amount of grated mozzarella.
15. Place another lasagne sheet and follow same steps until you use all the lasagne sheets and sauce.
16. Spread remaining Bechamel sauce over top sheet.
17. Add remaining grated mozzarella all over the dish.
18. Heat your oven up to 200°C (400°F). Put lasagne into the pre-heated oven.
19. Remove lasagne from oven after cooking for 25-30 minutes. You can serve now.
Bon appetite...
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