LASAGNE RECIPE

Even though I love cooking, my passion level drops mid-week.  After coming home from work, a lot of the time I actually don't feel like cooking.  Therefore, on weekends, I sometimes cook up a big batch and freeze in portions.  Here is my lasagne recipe which freezes well.  It is also very tasty as it's packed with veggies and meat.

 

Ingredients:

1 tbs olive oil

1/2 bunch of celery

5 carrots

6 onions

2 eggplants

12 large brown flat mushrooms

6 cloves of garlic, crushed

1.6ml diced tomatoes canned

680ml tomato pasta sauce

2kg beef mince

700g Italian sausages

2 chorizo sausages

1/2 tablespoon dried mixed herbs

4 bay leaves

salt and pepper to taste

4 tablespoons corn flour

60g butter

1/3 cup plain flour

1L skinny milk

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

600g mozzarella cheese, grated

wholemeal lasagne pasta sheets

Serves 14-16

Method:

Preheat oven at 200 degrees Celsius.  Grease deep baking dishes with spray oil.

Dice celery, carrots, onions, eggplants and mushrooms.

In a very large pot, add olive oil and cook celery, carrots and onion over a medium heat.

Once vegetables start to go transparent, mix in eggplant, mushrooms and crushed garlic.  Cook for about 10-15 minutes.

Add diced tomatoes, tomato pasta sauce, corn flour, mixed herbs and bay leaves.  Stir and leave to simmer uncovered.

Chop Italian and chorizo sausages into small pieces.  In a separate large pan, cook sausages and mince.

Once meats have cooked through, add all of the meat mixture into the large pot with vegetables.  Stir and simmer for about 40-45 minutes, until most of the liquid evaporates.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

To make the béchamel sauce, melt butter.  Add plain flour and stir with a wooden spoon for about 1-2 minutes on the stove top.

Take off the heat and gradually add milk.  Whisk constantly and quickly to get out all the lumps.

Once all the milk has been added and the sauce is smooth, stir in 300g mozzarella.  The residual heat should be able to melt the cheese.

 

Add nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble the lasagne by alternating lasagne pasta sheets and tomato mixture.

  For the top layer, cover the lasagne with béchamel sauce and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese.

 Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes until the top goes golden brown.

 Cut into slices and serve (or freeze).