Making a lasagne from scratch

You could always make the bolognese part and buy a bechamel sauce as a compromise? I always cook my bolognese long and slow anyway cos I think it tastes better but it doesn’t have to be done like that. And a bechamel shouldn’t take an hour.

I stopped making my own lasagne a couple of year’s ago even though my kids liked them, I just lost interest in the rigmarole. I only have them in winter now and I buy it from M&S.

Similar for me, I do a big batch and freeze. My downfall is sometimes the labels fall off. One night we had baked tiramisu for tea as it looked remarkably like lasagne.

Takes me a while but most of that is simmering. Also a lot of the time I cheat and make DH knock up a cheese sauce so really all I do is a bolognaise and some assembly then take all the credit 😁

Mine’s bubbling in the oven

yes it is a bit faffy but definitely worth it

I never put white sauce between the layers, only on top. Waste of time, you can't taste it anyway.

I put really finely chopped black pudding in my ragu, it may sound wrong but it's rich and lovely.

Make double the ragu.

Have half, as Bolognese that night.

Freeze the rest.

Make lasagne later in the week with the frozen portion. Then you only have one sauce to make on lasagne day.

All recipes take ages the first couple of times (or feel l I ke they do). You get better and quicker with practice. And the taste is so much better!

I was given a cookery book in 1989 by my sister. The cookery year. By readers digest.
The bechamel sauce is made by infusing milk with half and onion studded with cloves and a bay leaf or two.
Simmer for about 10 minutes.
The ragu is much better with white wine not red, include star anise and Henderson's or Worcestershire sauce. Add some full fat milk into the meat and it dissolves the tough gritty bits. Always use tinned tomatoes not chopped tomatoes.
Fry the tomato paste as that gives a lot of flavor. Be wary of stock cubes that may contain too much salt.
2 hours is not unreasonable. But you can make 10 portions and freeze the ones you don't use on the day.
No such thing as one layer lasagna lol.
And many people swear by plotting the pasta sheets but I find it a pain in the ass.
Hope that helps.

Why no cheddar? try using italian cheeses like mozarella...

There’s a lasagne and a lasagne though
simmering for 10 mins isn’t giving you a delicious ragu - I’m not a snob but the longer it’s cooked, the nicer it is!

I was taught to add chicken liver (chopped fine it basically melts in) by a waiter in Naples - he also insisted that you need a glug of milk in after browning the mince. Both do make it richer tbf.

However, I recently ended up with a large block of pate courtesy of Too Good To Go. None of us really like pate, so I've frozen it in stock cube portions & bung a couple in in lieu of liver. Saves a rather slippery gory chopping job, & tastes fab, so a useful hack!

I was thinking the same. Betchemel sauce takes about 5-10 minutes and I grate some cheese into mine too. Mince cooks in about 8 minutes, drain then add a handful of herbs, squeeze of garlic puree, pinch of salt, and add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes. Stir about and simmer for 10 minutes then layer with lasagne sheets and the Betchemel sauce and sprinkle parmesan and cheddar on the top and serve with garlic bread. Last time I made it took me less than 40 mins from scratch to putting in the oven and I always make 1kg of mince so enough for second day too.

Decent lasagna is a labour of love if you do it traditionally. Warm the milk leave a bay leaf in and make the filling properly with pork and beef with milk in etc. but it’s sooooo good.

@tangerinemagic I hear you on the bechamel sauce! I have always always struggled with making the sauce and always found it takes me ages however I do it....but my mil showed me last week how she makes her white sauce just by putting cornflour and milk together in glass jug in microwave and heating for a minute, stirring with fork, sticking back in for a minute longer and so on till you get the consistency you want, it honestly Is a total game changer!!!

Wow. I must hunt down some venison. Not literally, obviously!

Haggis, Venison and Wild Scottish Mushroom Lasagne

Haggis
Venison Mince
Crushed tomatoes or tinned is fine
Oyster Mushrooms, finely chopped (or shop bought)
Carrot, grated
Red onion, finely diced
Bramble Jelly
Tomato puree
Neeps, grated
Garlic, crushed
Dried mixed herbs
Fresh basil
Cream
Black Pepper
Whisky
Dijon mustard
Cream
Beef stock
Orkney Cheddar
Fresh Lasagne Sheets

1. To make the tomato based venison sauce, add the onion, carrot, neeps, garlic, tomato puree, crushed tomatoes, Bramble Jelly, torn fresh basil and dried herbs to a pot, add a splash of water and seasoning, simmer for 30 minutes. Blend to desired consistency, taste, adjust seasoning.
2. Brown the Venison Mince and mushrooms, add in the prepared sauce, reduce to thicken.
3. To make the Whisky Sauce, add a knob of butter to a pan, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 3 tbsp of Whisky, double cream, a generous crack of fresh black pepper and a splash of beef stock. Bring up to heat and reduce to thicken, season to taste.
4. Assemble the layers, alternating each layer (1 layer Whisky Sauce and Haggis then cheese, next layer Whisky Sauce and Venison Ragù then cheese, etc).
5. Top with Scottish Cheddar and bake until golden.

That's the recipe I followed however I couldn't find Venison Mince so I used diced Venison and slow cooked it until it fell apart and it was great I found the recipe on Facebook.

That sounds amazing.

Someone in here recommended a chicken Alfredo lasagna that I make quite a but that is also good.

I make the ragu in the slow cooker overnight, browning the mince beforehand. Make the béchamel in advance and use no cook lasagna sheets. Buy grated cheddar and Parmesan then just assemble sometime in the next couple of days.
Ragu is all the better for sitting for a couple of days in the fridge 😋

I haven’t read the whole thread but my helpful tip is for the béchamel ( cheese can be added for macaroni cheese). 500ml milk, 25g butter, 25g plain flour, salt and pepper. Mix in a bowl/ measuring jug ( it will be lumpy). Pop into the microwave for a minute at a time, taking it out and whisking around between each minute. Usually takes about 4 or 5 minutes in total. It will thicken up and voila, easy bechamel sauce. Sorry if this has already been mentioned. 🙂

I made a venison and haggis lasagne the other week with a peppercorn sauce in place of the bechamel and that took about an hour and a half all in including sauces from scratch however I have been known to just use jars for if I need a really quick meal.

My ragu starts with carrots, onions and celery sticks. For a normal meal for four it would be 2 of each chopped into small dice (takes an age, but so worth it). These get cooked in a drizzle of oil for twenty minutes.

They then come out of the pot and the mince goes in. Either 500g of lean beef mince of a pork and beef combination. This gets browned and I add to it half a tube of tomato puree, 4 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper and dried herbs.

Once it has browned I add back in the vegetables, two tins of tomatoes, a beef stock pot and a red wine stock pot. I’ll add some extra water if it looks dry. I’ll then cook that down for up to two hours.

Stirring occasionally, but basically left alone. If when I want to use it, the sauce is to thin then I thinken with slaked cornflour.

'One Layered Lasagne' is my favourite insult for people misses point of thread

I will add, they shouldn't take that long OP. You've got some very good tips on here.

The joy of lasagne, and bolognaise, is that we all have use different ingredients and methods.

My bol for every kilo is:
1kg good quality Mince - browned in a hot pan with the fat drained
2 red onions
2 tins good quality plum toms (I find them richer than chopped)
A good squirt - just under half a tube of good quality puree
About 300ml of robust red wine
4 peeled garlic cloves - squashed in when they go soft
Three teaspoons dried oregano
Three bayleaves
Salt, black pepper
Simmer for about an hour - two if larger quantities used and if I make lasagne I always start with a much larger quantity.

Bechamel/cheese
1L semi skimmed
Brought to a simmer with 3 bayleaves, half an onion and 8 black peppercorns and left to cool - probs overnight
An inch of butter and a heaped tablespoon of flour
2 to three handfuls of grated mature cheddar
A vacuum pack of grated parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

Make a roux, add the milk gradually to get the right consistency, add the cheese and season to taste - it might not need salt depending on the saltiness of the cheese.

That would be enough for three layers of pasta sheets in a deep roasting tin. It would serve 8-10 - I'd freeze some for later in the week.

In reality if making lasagne it's usually when catering for many so I'd double the above and bake it in the turkey tin which takes four layers.

I do: meat, pasta, sauce - finishing with sauce and grated cheese (the ready grated 4 cheese packs are good for the topping).

There are no rights or wrongs if the end product is yummy.