Proper lasagna is a faff..

[BarrelOfOtters]

it is though.

I don’t meaning dumping jars of dolmio in a slow cooker. But a proper ragu and roux.

I don't enjoy making or eating them tbh, so don't unless someone else requests it. I just don't like anything about lasagna. I love pasta and cheese and ragu, but don't lose lasagna.

I love moussaka though which is somewhat similar 🤔

I don't think anyone is saying it's too hard for them to make, altho I guess some people might struggle with the roux, just that it's a lot of work. Obv some methods req less work but having made meat and veggie options for 80 recently, it's a lot of work

All the washing up afterwards is a faff! I suppose it's quite time consuming but I make the ragu sauce and freeze in batches. The white sauce is only butter, flour, milk and cheese.
And you just have to fry the mince.
If I made the pasta sheets from scratch it would be worse but I buy the dried ones to save time/faff.

There’s a whole host of options between making the ragu, bechamel and pasta from scratch and buying a ready made lasagne. I just make a basic meat sauce and a basic white sauce with butter, flour and milk. No real faffing. No more or less than any other meal.

Just make one, vegan, lasagne. I made both for a big crowd and it was the vegan one that got the rave reviews.

Yes I completely agree but it's not the bechamel sauce etc that is time consuming it's the Ragu/Bolognese! I can't eat it unless it's been cooked down for hours though otherwise I don't like the taste/texture. So I tend to do a huge batch once in a while every few months and freeze the excess, otherwise I don't bother. Aldis luxury one is ok for a midweek meal version so we pick that up occasionally, but it doesn't compare to home made!

I actually quite enjoy making it. The ragu just goes on and is left for an hour, whilst you drink your glass of wine.

Not sure how others making bechamel but it's a quick whisk up of butter, flour and milk.....

Bought fresh pasta, layer it all up with parmesan, stick it in the oven. Job done.

Two pans, one dish, a spoon, a whisk, a grater.

@MyShmoo you can also do it in the slow cooker which means the meat sauce is properly melt in the mouth. Or bake in a casserole dish in the oven for an hour with the lid on.

Disagree- it's one of the most straightforward foods I cook

Yes I'm wondering if I'm making the sauce wrong

Everyone on Mumsnet seems to have massive freezers! Ours always seems full with a few choc ices, a bag of chips, some meat portioned up and veg weve grown over the summer.

I used to make it from scratch then started doing the short cut route, adding a jar of sauce, etc but now I just occasionally pick a large one up at M&S. I cook a lot less now than when the kids were growing up and rely heavily on Hello Fresh type deliveries or I probably wouldn’t cook at all.

I make it over 2 days and in double quantities.
One day for the bolgonese sauce. Then the cheese sauce, layering and cooking on day 2. Making it in one go creates so much mess.

It's a faff for sure, but a good lasagne is the best!
For me, the level of faff is so high that I think 'in for a penny, in for a pound' and make the pasta too! It only takes 5 mins to make the dough (whilst I'm softening the veg) and then 5 mins to roll out when I'm layering it all up, but the difference it makes to the end dish is well worth it.

I always make double the ragu quantity so there's some in the freezer, and always do the white sauce as an all-in-one, so that's a 5 min job. It's a faff worth faffing with, in my view!

I just use Delia's approach (don't even measure now). All in one pan.

Have you seen Nigella's 'Lasagne of Love' (or something like that) recipe? That takes faffing to a whole new level!

Lasagne is a winner meal to me - not much faff to make, tastes amazing and is a hit with the kids.

I use frozen soffritto to avoid all the fiddly chopping. Sauté the soffritto in a large frying pan and put it in the Instant Pot. Sauté the minced beef in same frying pan and put it in the Instant pot. Add cans/boxes of chopped tomatoes and/or passata, stick cubes, herbs, garlic (lazy garlic to save chopping) and cook it on high pressure for 20 mins or so.

Meanwhile make the white sauce and grate cheese for the top. Assemble.

Washing up is the frying pan, a wooden spoon, instant pot, one sauce pan and the lasagne dish!

I can't understand how anyone finds it a faff!

The Bolognese is the easiest dish going - takes only about 20 mins to prepare, then it cooks with no intervention bar a stir or 2 for an hour.

Like a PP, I have spaghetti Bolognese one night, then lasagne the next.

Béchamel sauce takes 15 minutes, then it's just layering up.

The only bit I don't like is grating the cheese, but a child will do that for me!

I find it quite rich as a dish so I don't love eating it but so easy with kids, especially hungry post-sports / training teens!

Oh yes. DC love cannelloni here too, and the filling of those tubes is the devil's work.

The meat sauce takes ages to cook - but not make. I think that's the beauty of it!

My children love bolognaise and lasagne.

I cooked bolognaise sauce on Sunday and we had it over pasta. Yesterday I made 2 dishes of lasagne and we had 1 for supper. Making the lasagne was not a faff (spread the washing up too), it was just a white sauce, layering and some cheese on top. Took an age to cook though! Meanwhile there’s another sitting in the freezer - which will be a very low effort but delicious meal.

I don’t find it a faff or time consuming. But then I don’t put loads of different veg in my meat sauce which lots of you seem to be doing. I just use onion and tinned tomatoes. I would add mushrooms if it’s just for spaghetti bolognaise, but I don’t usually add them for lasagne as I find the mushrooms soak up too much of the liquid and make it all a bit dry. Cheese sauce made using the all in one method, never goes lumpy. Make the cheese sauce while the meat sauce simmers a bit, then layer and chuck it in the oven. I know it’s not a lasagne that would satisfy an Italian nonna but everyone in this house likes it so I don’t care.

I do Jamie Oliver's method of crème fraiche with finely chopped anchovies and Parmesan instead of making the bechamel sauce. It speeds it up and is less daffy.

@BigButtons and @LynnBenfieldsnephew - cannelloni is easy as long as you have a piping bag!

Mix the defrosted spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, herbs etc and egg in a bowl until combined, put it in a piping bag.

Stand up all the cannelloni tubes upright and pipe the filling into each one.

Put a layer of passata in the bottom of the dish, add the filled tubes, pour over the rest of the passata and bake.

A good vegetable lasagna is one of my favourites but rarely worth the effort when the rest of the family aren’t fussed.

@GolgafrinchamB

I find the piping bag method even more annoying!

The tubes fall over, I need both hands to manage the piping bag, and it always spurts out randomly.

I just use a small teaspoon & tap it along the tube. Still time-consuming tho.