AIBU to think you can't make lasagne with raw mince?

[HetMeal]

I had a mild debate with a friend today who says you don't need to cook/brown the meat before you put it in the lasagne. She would do pasta sheets, white sauce, tomato basil sauce from a jar, raw minced beef, in layers.

I do it the normal way, cooking a tomatoey meat sauce first and layering that with bechamel and pasta sheets. She said using raw meat is a perfectly legitimate time saver and tastes fine.

I can't get my head around this, and wondering whether anyone else does it this way?

@ChristinaYang10

Sounds weird, and annoying to have to try and evenly spread out raw mince across the dish surely?

She probably uses bags of frozen mince 🤮

@3Britnee Please don’t lower the tone even further with frozen mince 😂😅😂😅😂😅

I've never heard of anyone else cooking lasagne with raw mince.

Surely the way to get it to taste delicious is by cooking the mince with garlic, tomato etc.

Sounds vile OP, but she obvioisly is not a confident cook. What I am strugling with is the mentions of red wine in ragu. WHITE WINE GOES RAGU. Before you all pile on and claim otherwise either check with your nearest nona or Google.

God I was going to make ragu today. Now I don't know which wine to use, whether to add sugar, do I use Worcester sauce?!

@Blondeshavemorefun

So everyone on here makes own sauce and simmers for hours

I’m an indifferent cook at the best of times but yes, for lasagne, I do. The longest part is frying off the mince, after that everything goes in the casserole dish and that goes into the oven on the slow cook setting for 4-5 hours. It’s not that long actively cooking.

@willstarttomorrow, you have slightly restored my will to live. But tinned tomatoes don't go anywhere near my ragù. Sofrito, pancetta, pork and beef (better, veal and beef) mince, tomato purée, garlic, white wine, oregano.
And no cheese in the béchamel.
Burn the witch

I'm trying to imagine my Italian relatives' faces if I told them I did lasagne like this...I would be excommunicated

Haha, I knew there would be some people who made pasta bake with uncooked pasta and it was fine - but my lodger didn't add any liquid, just the pasta, tuna and cheese, hence the crunchiness! I wouldn't be able to trust myself to get the liquid content right either, so would always pre-cook it.

Tbh, I don't even bake ours - tuna pasta in our house is literally cooked pasta with mayonnaise and tuna stirred through it and served. Sometimes with capers, or Boursin, for extra flavour.

I think the thing about Lloyds sauce having too much sugar is missing the point that it's utterly disgusting, sugar or not. My ex once bought this and I could barely choke it down. Gross. Same is true of most sauces from a jar.

While we're here, I do tuna pasta bake with the following:
Chifferi rigatti pasta (half cooked)
Roughly chopped onion, red pepper, courgette, mushrooms
Tin if drained tuna in water
Tin of very good chopped tomatoes (no added salt or sugar)
Cup of white sauce (I warm the milk with onion and bay first - also great for cheese sauce)
Ground black pepper
Mix and put into dish
Grated cheese on top
Foil over - in the oven at 170. Foil off for last 10-15 mins

Liquid from the veggies completes pasta cooking
It's yummy and can be reheated in microwave for lunch.
:)

I am not a fan of tuna pasta bake, but I love cart driver's spaghetti.

www.eatyourbooks.com/library/recipes/2187675/cart-drivers-spaghetti-spaghetti-alla

@gelatodipistacchio

I think the thing about Lloyds sauce having too much sugar is missing the point that it's utterly disgusting, sugar or not. My ex once bought this and I could barely choke it down. Gross. Same is true of most sauces from a jar.

It is vile. I once had pasta for dinner at one of those hotels near Heathrow. I swear it was just pasta tossed in Lloyd Grossman sauce. It was gross, man. And they charged £15 for it! .

@willstarttomorrow

Sounds vile OP, but she obvioisly is not a confident cook. What I am strugling with is the mentions of red wine in ragu. WHITE WINE GOES RAGU. Before you all pile on and claim otherwise either check with your nearest nona or Google.

Anna del Conte uses red wine! Also milk.

Didn’t think much shocked me but

Het please could you enquire how your friend makes shepherds pie or cottage pie? Moussaka? The mind boggles.

Always fry off the mince first... I then pour off the mince through a strainer. The amount of fat that comes off is yuk, even with a good quality mince.
Mind you, I once had an Italian friend and the mince wasn’t separated from the fat that came out of it... like pp said it tasted disgusting, coz no matter what you add to that afterwards would be drowned out by the fat. Not very healthy either.
Shame, coz I thought with the Italian family recipe, it would be authentically gorgeous.
Just goes to show.

www.thepetitecook.com/traditional-bolognese-sauce/

@NoSquirrels

Didn’t think much shocked me but

Het please could you enquire how your friend makes shepherds pie or cottage pie? Moussaka? The mind boggles.

Moussaka is just like making lasgane but even more faff. Can't imagine the friend bothering. I've only made it once and lost a bit of finger to the mandolin!

Right. I'm off to make it now...
Will feed back at 6pm. I'll use a cornflour white sauce, give it a fighting chance!

Oh no that doesn't sound appetising at all. I just make a large batch of from scratch spag bol then put a big bowl of the sauce in the fridge and make lasagne with it the next night.
I build it with fresh lasagne sheets, alternate layers of the bolognese and bechamel sauce and of course lots of cheddar, mozerella and parmesan in the bechamel layers inbetween and on top as well!

Ugh no. I cook it all in the frying pan then it just needs heating later. Sounds vile

Well, there is more than tomato sauce and mince beef in the ragu. Let alone the fact that the meat needs to cook for a looooong time to be soft and nice (and that wouldn't happen in only 30-40 minutes in the oven), a number of other ingredients would get missed.
You need the oil, the onion, salt, pepper, herbs and spices and more veg if you like.
And the meat tastes nice also because the long cooking time infuses it with the other flavours....

Technically speaking it would be ok but I wouldn't expect it to taste great...

@picklemewalnuts

Right. I'm off to make it now... Will feed back at 6pm. I'll use a cornflour white sauce, give it a fighting chance!

Ooooh! I can't wait to hear how it turns out 🤪

@picklemewalnuts I'm very curious to hear the report!

Thanks for the replies. I'm clearly not alone in thinking it sounds weird and dreadful.

I would not have thought my friend was a terrible cook, but have not eaten a meal at her place before, so it's hard to tell.