Saturday 8 September 2012

Delicious Lasagna & Fresh Green Salad - Recipe

Yesterday I wanted to make something really tasty and creamy, so I instantly thought of Lasagna. It was also requested by the family, so lasagna it was! I went to buy lasagna sheets and tomato sauce, as I would not have time enough to make my own tomato sauce which I usually do myself (that will be another blog post). This is a recipe I always follow whenever i want to make a quick but delicious lasagna together with a fresh green salad. Hopefully you would give it a go :)

Serves 4

Ingredients: 
12 Lasange sheets

For the Meat Sauce:
500 g tomato sauce (I'm using onion and garlic tomato sauce from Iceland)
Ca 300 g minced beef
2 table spoon of olive oil
1/3 bell pepper
A small onion (I also had a small piece of aubergine and leek which I also used in the tomato sauce)

Spices to use for extra taste in the tomato sauce: 
1/2 teaspoon of :
smoked paprika
black, rose, white pepper mix
ground garlic
herbes de provence mic
dried parsley
dried basil
sea salt

(All of these spices should be used to taste, this is how i like it best in my tomato sauces)

Bechamel Sauce (white sauce):
 Ca 700 (1 pint) semi-skimmed milk
pinch of grated nutmeg
1,5 table spoon of plain flour
1 table spoon of butter (not in the picture)
salt and pepper to taste
grated cheese, ca half cup (I am using Sainsbury's white cheese, not in the pucture)



Process:
1- preheat the oven to 200 C degrees (gas mark 7). Heat the oil in a hot pan and add the minced meat and fry until browned nicely. Break it up with a wooden spoon if needed.



2-  Grate the veggies in a food processor (or by hand if you prefer that, but I use the food processor always for grating the veggies while the meat is frying as it is done in seconds and saves me time). Add the veggies in the pan and fry everything together for few minutes.




 3- Once everything is browned, add the tomato sauce and stir and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add all the spices and stir until everything is mixed well. Dont forget to taste and season more if needed.  

4- Now it is time to do the white sauce. Put the butter, flour and pour the milk into a saucepan and stir over a moderate heat and bring to just to the boil. Then, add salt, plack pepper and the nutmed/ Reduce the heat and simmer the sauce gently and then add the grated cheese. Keep stirring so nothing gets stick to the bottom of the pan, until the sauce looks smooth and thick. In this case, you should taste it and season more if it is needed.

5-  The last step is when you put everything together. For this, I am using a pyrex glass baking dish. Spoon a thin layer of the tomato sauce and the white sauce into the bottom of the baking dish. Place 3 lasagna sheets on top. Next, you repeat this step by layering a spoon of the tomato and white sauce over the three first sheets and and on top of that make a new layer of three sheets and tomato and white sauce. The last and fourth layer should end with tomato and white sauce on top and some grated cheese.

Then put the lasagna in the oven for about 30-45 minutes depending on your oven and heat. It should look golden brown and delicious.


This was truly an amazing dish which I try to make at least once every month. It is great for puttting it in portion size boxes and freeze it for taking with you to work for lunch. For the dinner I served it alongside a fresh green salad. It was very tasty and filling :)

Fresh green salad:
2 tomatoes
1/3 cucumber
1/3 iceberg salad
2 spoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of dried parsely
1 table spoond of extra virgin olive oil. 

Enjoy :)  

3 comments:

Senka I said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Miss C Flash said...

A lovely classic dish. Am loving your pictures x

Variety is the spice of life said...

Thanks :) I totally agree, it is a classic one but the great thing about is that you can make different varieties of this dish and that way never get tired of it !