Making a lasagne from scratch

Sorry its gone so wrong...you had the best intentions. Sometimes things just go like that. Try not to let it upset you

A cheese sauce takes me about ten minutes? And I do it the same time I’m making the other filling. Admittedly we don’t eat meat so not sure if our lasagne is quicker because of that but I’d say prep is 30 minutes max then oven 40 minutes.

Is the lasagne in the oven? Glass of wine, last bits of tidying, you’ll be tucking in before you know it.

Ignore DH.

I gave up on making Bechamel years ago. Instead, I mix together equal quantities of double cream and full fat crème fraiche with seasoning and a dollop of Dijon mustard. Much quicker.

My dh makes it from scratch and it’s amazing. He makes a massive pan of bolognaise so there is usually some of that left for another meal and then the lasagna is usually 6 portions, do there are a couple left over.

The answer is always more cheese! I put cheese in my bechamel 😆

How on earth does bechamel take an hour? It’s a 10 minute job.

Ragu is 10 mins hands on then 3 hours cooking, but you can go and do something else during that time.

An hour on the bechemel sounds wild but generally I think things take a long time (and feel like a lot of effort) when you don't do it often. My DP's mum makes them all the time and I suspect she doesn't even have to think about it and does it whilst she is doing other stuff.

It took you longer because it was your first time making it from scratch and from some of your comments you seem to be overthinking the layering.

An hour to make bechamel sauce is a very long time. I make it with cornflour. I mix the required quantity of cornflour with a little bit of the milk and put it aside then I put the butter and the rest of the milk in the pan, heat it up until all the butter is melted and the milk is warm before adding the milk/cornflour mix and heating until it's thickened. You can make double and freeze some for your next lasagne.

I make my lasagne from scratch.

The bechamel sauce takes 5-10 minutes with 1 pint warm milk and 50g butter 50 g flour with salt and nutmeg.
Meat sauce takes an hour then I leave it to cool.

i usually do 3 layers because I make it for DD

Mine takes all day, the ragu simmers for 6 hours ideally, then about an hour to infuse and make the sauce, assemble and a good 45 mins in the oven. It's bloody good but I only do it about twice a year.

I make a big batch and then freeze portions, it makes it feel more worth the effort then!

I never make my own sauces for lasagne. I use jars and add herbs. I made a lasagne the other week and it was absolutely gorgeous. Took me about 15 mins to make and assemble. The answer is less sauce and more cheese.

I reckon it takes an hour to get to the stage of putting it in the oven but I have to work quite intensely if we're making everything except pasta from scratch.

I can see how it would take 2.5 hours is you're finishing one thing before starting on the next.

It's so good to eat though. I might make one this weekend 🤔

I’m with you OP, it takes an hour and a half for me because I make the tomato sauce and a rushed tomato sauce is a pan of thin acidic sadness.

You can leave it to do its own thing, though.

Even this recipe doesn’t let you get away with less than 1 hr 40 in total. Much of that is the bolognaise bubbling away and then 45 mins in the oven.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/classic-lasagne-0

I used to make a huge slow cookers worth of bolognaise in advance

I buy the white sauce make the rest. It levels it up without the fuss . The tomato sauce is so easy to make .

Make double the ragu a day or so before and serve half as part of spaghetti bolognese or similar pasta dinner. Store in the fridge overnight. Then when you want the lasagne, you only need to make the béchamel and assemble it. Much easier!

What, including all the prep of the veg for the meat sauce and everything? And it needs simmering for a good long time to be thick enough otherwise the end result lasagne will just be slop.

i made one last week using Tom Kerridge recipe, roasting the mince first ,also roasting the tomatoes 🍅, lots of red wine and just let it tootle away for hours, made a huge one and had lots for the freezer, absolute faff but so tasty, I dont do it often, 2 hours seems excessive though, I can knock up a bog standard one in an hour

Traditional lasagne made with ragu bolognese: takes me ages, because I use Delia Smith's recipe for the ragu, and it makes a huge quantity and cooks for hours. Well worth it, because I freeze most of it for other times, lasagne or spag bol.

I make the ragu a day or two before I intend to make the lasagne because the flavour improves, as well as wanting to spread the workload. Making the bechamel takes a few minutes. Grating the Parmesan, ditto. A few minutes to assemble. Job done.

Vegetarian lasagne: also takes a while, as I use roast vegetables, and there's a lot of chopping. Here again, though, it's worth it as a fair amount of the lasagne ends up in the freezer for an easy meal or two another time.

I don't make lasagne very often, but when I do I only ever make it in my huge catering-size tray (it doesn't sit on a self in the oven, but has lips that slide into the rail shelf guides so that it can take up the absolute maximum space in the oven) and can take enough for 4 family meals worth. Then it's worth my while to make an enormous vat of bolognese sauce and another enormous vat of Bechamel - because making 4 times the quantity takes about the same time, perhaps a few minutes more for a bit more chopping and grating, but I have a food processor so can grate a block of cheese in 10 seconds and similarly can dice onions etc pretty quickly. Done that way, each meal takes about a quarter of the time.

However I am concerned by your mentioning of a "one layer" lasagne - such a concept is surely an abhomination againt god and nature? A good lasagne should be at least 4 layers, or perhaps 6, and I am not sure a single layer could qualify as the same kind of dish?

They are a bit of a labour of love. To make it all from scratch (chopping onion, making sauce etc), I can easily spend an hour. I now make 2 or 3 at the same time to freeze, as it only takes me about 20% longer to make all 3 or 4 of them.

Or heat up milk in a pan and add mcdougles thickening granules then season