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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Homemade lasagna.

286 replies

Idrinkmywhiskeyneat · 29/05/2024 16:59

Is it one of the best inventions known to man?
Just stood in the kitchen with my lovely meaty, tomatoey sauce in one pan and the cheesy loveliness in the other. One of the best best is getting a spoonful of the mincemeat and topping it with the cheese sauce and just eating it off the spoon, whilst you’re stood over it, cooking it all. It has to be a very tomatoey, cheesy, thick lasagna, also extra nice, if left and eaten later in the evening or the next morning,

Anyway, sorry, just a homemade lasagna appreciation post.

OP posts:
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10
Trishthedish · 30/05/2024 20:51

SisterImpera · 29/05/2024 18:00

YABVVVU!!! Am desperate for lasagna now!

So firstly, what recipe, and secondly, what kind of dish (to serve 6)? My previous attempts have not been great and I can never fit lasagna sheets in my dish without messing around with breaking them up. Please tell!!!

James Martin’s recipe is delicious. And you can buy fresh pasta sheets in most supermarkets, which are easier to cut to fit your dish. Good luck 😀

EnglishGirlApproximately · 30/05/2024 20:52

Lasagne is our favourite family meal. When I was furloughed and had plenty of time on my hands I made one with a very slow cooked beef brisket, pulled when tender and made into a Ragu 😋 My family still talk about it now.
I probably do it once a month on average as DS requests it every week. His favourite meals all take hours and this is at least one I don't need to think about too much as I've made it so many times I could do it in my sleep!

Trishthedish · 30/05/2024 20:55

Idrinkmywhiskeyneat · 29/05/2024 18:14

@BabsMustGo I add cheese into my bechamel sauce…try it! Grated cheddar…so so good..I thought everyone did this, maybe this is why mines the best lasagna in town 😂

I do too. Also shredded mozzarella and Parmesan on top. Nom, nom, nom

Jeannie88 · 30/05/2024 20:55

Yes, with garlic bread, mmm. Personally I do prefer salmon lasagne now, if you haven't tried it you should! Also vegetable lasagne is so tasty. Xx

Italianasoitis · 30/05/2024 20:56

LaCerbiatta · 30/05/2024 11:23

I'm sorry but it's really not. I'm not italian but have been fluent, albeit many moons ago. I'm portuguese and we have that sound as well, maybe that's why it's so clear to me it's not like onion at all.
Maybe an italian will come along and back me up!!

Show quote history

I'm not Italian either but I also live in Italy and there most definitely is a 'n' sound and the gn definitely makes a 'nyuh' type of sound. It is boll-oh-nyez-eh.

LeopardPrintIsNeutral · 30/05/2024 20:58

Lasagne doesn’t have cheese sauce?!?!

Fangisnotacoward · 30/05/2024 20:58

Homemade lasagne is the food of the gods.

I spent far too much of my life thinking I didn't like lasagne because I'd only ever had the frozen microwavable crap from the '80s!

Trishthedish · 30/05/2024 20:59

twigy100 · 29/05/2024 18:25

Does any one have a recipe they recommend?

James Martin’s is delicious imo

QueenOfTheEntireFuckingUniverse · 30/05/2024 21:00

Jeannie88 · 30/05/2024 20:55

Yes, with garlic bread, mmm. Personally I do prefer salmon lasagne now, if you haven't tried it you should! Also vegetable lasagne is so tasty. Xx

Do you have a recipe for the salmon one please?

Trishthedish · 30/05/2024 21:14

MouseMinge · 29/05/2024 23:06

@Idrinkmywhiskeyneat thank you for this thread. I shall try and keep a long story as short as I can to let you know why I'm thanking you. I have cancer of the oesophagus. Actually, if treatment has worked maybe I don't. I'll find out by the middle of next month. Anyway,poor me etc. I drink a lot of food supplements because for ages I just couldn't eat because food go stuck and blah. Recently I've been aware that I'm sure I could eat more but I have a bit of a mental block and get scared that x will get stuck and I don't want to try it. A couple of weeks ago a friend and I talked about cheese for an hour - we are that exciting - and I brought up Gouda and then really, really, really wanted to try it. I did. I am currently eating it every day without too many problems. I want to introduce more food to my diet (I am underweight, it's not nice to look at myself) but it needs to be something that suddenly grabs me from somewhere and then becomes like some made pregnancy craving but, you know, cancer instead. I read what you'd written, read a bit more and now I desperately want lasagne and it has to be homemade. It couldn't be real meat as that is a definite no-no for now, but with well seasoned quorn or similar. I am salivating.

This has ended up longer than I wanted it to be. Of course you're not unreasonable and (currently) 13% of people on this thread are a bit wrong, possibly in the head. You've made me happy and I'm going to get a friend to help me make a really good homemade lasagne (I used to make great lasagne, I need help because I'm a bit feeble at the moment, blah, blah). If it turns out I can't eat it (slowly, all eating is slow) then she can have it, there's no waste and a delicious lasagne gets eaten one way or another. Thank you for giving me a seriously tasty in so many ways, from actual taste to smell and texture and oh my, craving. Possibly the best one yet!

(I hope I haven't derailed the thread too much!🙂)

Hope it lives up to your dreams. Also hope you are better soon

AlpineMuesli · 30/05/2024 21:19

Garfield…is that you?

LaCerbiatta · 30/05/2024 21:23

Italianasoitis · 30/05/2024 20:56

I'm not Italian either but I also live in Italy and there most definitely is a 'n' sound and the gn definitely makes a 'nyuh' type of sound. It is boll-oh-nyez-eh.

Show quote history

How long have you been in Italy for? I'm afraid I'll stand by absolutely no onion sound until an italian disagrees!!

Jeannie88 · 30/05/2024 21:31

QueenOfTheEntireFuckingUniverse · 30/05/2024 21:00

Do you have a recipe for the salmon one please?

Show quote history

I will try to find it! It was BBC cooking site. Xx

MrsSkylerWhite · 30/05/2024 21:48

LeopardPrintIsNeutral · Today 20:58
Lasagne doesn’t have cheese sauce?!?!”

The recipe we love comes from a very old Italian book I found 35 years ago on Charing Cross Road which advises adding ricotta to the bechamel. Transformative.

Halloumidays · 30/05/2024 22:56

I have a cheats version using M&S everything tomato sauce and their packet cheese sauce.
And for a really speedy one, quorn mince.
Am not claiming it’s as good as the real deal but it’s not bad.

squishee · 31/05/2024 01:51

If you can get hold of wonton wrappers, you can make these:

www.thisfarmgirlcooks.com/easy-lasagna-cups/

squishee · 31/05/2024 01:55

bridgetreilly · 30/05/2024 10:55

When I was 18, an Italian lady taught me how to make ragu. Her advice was that you can put whatever you like in it, but you must cook it for at least three hours. Never fails.

I'll be trying that in the slow cooker.

Italianasoitis · 31/05/2024 04:59

LaCerbiatta · 30/05/2024 21:23

How long have you been in Italy for? I'm afraid I'll stand by absolutely no onion sound until an italian disagrees!!

Show quote history

6 years. Here is a video short from an Italian language teacher. She literally says 'let's practise the nyuh sound in Italian'. Then goes on to practise it 😄 I hear and make this sound every day.

https://youtube.com/shorts/j7IHcs7t0gE?si=ZOQelDJOrsZo1Mzv

Vole3 · 31/05/2024 06:34

Big Zulu’s recipe is the mutts nuts

Secondbreakfastclub · 31/05/2024 07:51

Homemade lasagna is heavenly. My version isn’t authentic but tastes good. I put loads of grated mature cheddar and Parmesan on the top. Next day leftovers are even better. There are so many good tips on here, I’m going to try them.

Ready meal lasagna’s are sloppy and don’t taste remotely the same.

LaCerbiatta · 31/05/2024 08:24

Italianasoitis · 31/05/2024 04:59

6 years. Here is a video short from an Italian language teacher. She literally says 'let's practise the nyuh sound in Italian'. Then goes on to practise it 😄 I hear and make this sound every day.

https://youtube.com/shorts/j7IHcs7t0gE?si=ZOQelDJOrsZo1Mzv

Show quote history

Haha to me that is not nyuh at all! It's nh (how it's spelled im portuguese)!

IndecentPropolis · 31/05/2024 08:39

I’ve now spent far too long googling how to pronounce lasagne and in every single case there’s a clear “n” sound.

frecklejuice · 31/05/2024 09:25

A lasagne made me cry once, like proper heaving sobs!!

Dd was 3 weeks old, dh had gone back to work plus had a 5 year old and 16 year old ss so I thought I’d show everyone that I had my shit together and make a chicken lasagne (I don’t eat red meat). We all sat down to eat when dh told everyone to stop eating because it was cold in the middle and some of the chicken was raw!! It had taken me so long I just went upstairs and cried for ages😂 We worked out over the next few days that the oven was actually broken so it wasn’t my shit cooking but I’ll never forget that lasagne and when anyone mentions having one at least someone will say no because it makes me cry!!

frenchroadtrip · 31/05/2024 09:41

I grew up with my mum's version of lasagne, which is not traditional but is so good.

It's a simple but very saucy meat bolognese, then a white sauce with the addition of two big tubs of full-fat cream cheese melted through it. Then into a pyrex rectangular dish/tray, it's meat, cheese sauce and a scant layer of dried lasagne sheets (gaps in between, so not a solid layer) then repeat, and finally the rest of the meat, the rest of the cheese sauce and into the oven for an hour.

It's sloppy, but the edges go all tomato-crusty, and there's not too much stodgy pasta. Mum's lasagne needed spooning out, it wouldn't hold it's shape :)

toxic44 · 31/05/2024 13:47

How is it 'too much like hard work' to make a cheese sauce and a tomato sauce? Why isn't it worth the effort to give your family (and yourself) better food for less money?