Homemade lasagna.

[Idrinkmywhiskeyneat]

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.

The beast. It's 11 inches long and still sizzling.

Best tip I got from MN was to leave to rest for 30 minutes before serving so it doesn't fall into a mushy mess when cut into portions!

But the ragù/bolognese can’t be ready in 30
mins. It’s needs to be cooked while to developed rich, deep flavours.

When I make lasagne, I always make ragù one night for something else (pasta bolognese, burritos). Then the next night, I make the bechamel, and use fresh pasta sheets (I don’t cook them in water and I don’t use dried), then heat the meat in the micro, and layer up and into the oven. Super easy and made within the 1hr but with a deep, flavoursome ragù.

That looks amazing OP!

I’m starving and want lasagne now.

I also love it the next day when it’s thick and you can cut it like a cake 😋

My Nonna by marriage cooks the ragu and the bechemel separately, adds tonnes of nutmeg then mixes both huge pans together before putting scraps of pasta in the dish and drowing it in the creamy, cheesy ragu.

It's a game changer but apparently, lasagne isn't a thing in Italy.

Every time I make my mum's bolognaise I have to pre warn my husband that it's British bolognaise, not Italian 🙄

But yes, there is nothing better than my mum's homemade, veggie lasagne.

Every few months I make a massive amount of the ragu sauce and portion it up for the freezer, so when I make lasagne I only have to make the white sauce as the meat is ready to use, saves much of the faff.
I now want lasagna for tea.

It's my favourite dish in the world, and I've been making it for 40 years, but I've never been able to keep the pasta from soaking up all the sauce.
I've tried making more béchamel, I've tried leaving the sauces til everything goes cold, then assembling and cooking. I've tried foil on top for half the cooking time. I've even pre-soaked the pasta!
Where does all my white sauce go? 😟

It is soo yummy! I haven’t made it in a while. Perhaps on Friday

Does any one have a recipe they recommend?

When I was a young un and lived with my parents my mam would do lasagne and salad, with home made coleslaw etc.
I used to put everything in a sandwich so my favourite was a lasagne sandwich with coleslaw and then more bread to mop up what fell out. It’s a real slag fest and I haven’t had it in about 25 years 😢

@BettyBlueHat i leave it to simmer for about 10mins. Mince meat doesn’t take that long to cook! I use mince, onion, mixed herbs, garlic, salt pepper, tomato paste and then a bit of a stock cube with some water and leave it simmer. Bechemel (spelling) is just butter, flour and milk (salt and pepper) and I make them at am the same time.

I love a lasagne sandwich, white bread & real salted butter. I also love a mash & gravy sandwich.

Cheddar? Yer pushing your luck now, what with the buttered boiled potatoes!

I cook a big load of ragu at a time then I can slow cook.
then can freeze in pots and use for different things including lasagne

Love a homemade lasagne but mine is not at all authentic.

Mine has marmite and Worcestershire sauce as well as beef oxos in the ragu, usually red wine but in a pinch I've used prosecco. I do cheese sauce not bechamel, it's got so many different cheeses in too it's ridiculous. Then top with cheese on top.

Not something to eat whilst you are watching your diet but as a once in a while with garlic bread you can't beat it. Then freeze in portions so you can take one out over the next few days/weeks.

I add a tub of marscapone to my bechamel. It makes it so light and fluffy.

I'm now considering adding mozzarella between the layers !

Mozzarella, grated cheddar in between layers but it really should be Parmesan but it's too exp.

AND fresh chopped Basil leaves on the bechamel/cheese layer.

I did lasagna for my dtd’s christening and made 14 of them! I didn’t make it again for years. I do love it but it makes so much washing up.

Joining for lasagne making tips.

Literally just made one 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼

@Westfacing What’s wrong with cheddar?!
Just shows how we all make our lasagnas differently and have different tastes, I swear mine is the best 😂passed down from my mum, who made it exactly the same way

It's the absolute best and not difficult. No frozen or ready lasagne would be remotely as good. My 10 year old granddaughter always asks for this for dinner on the days I'm feeding her after school, because she never gets it at home.
I cook the Ragu the day before, leave it to simmer for a good hour. Then on the day I make a cheese sauce with cheddar and parmesan,, do Delia's all in one white sauce method so it's very easy, use dried pasta, assemble and leave a couple of hours before baking. Bake for 30 mins and leave to stand for 10 mins before eating, it's fabulous.

@ISeriouslyDoubtIt Thank you! A cheddar type bechamel cheese right?! It’s the best

I put finely chopped up black pudding in the bol, and parmesan in the sauce

Sorry, not sorry.

Otherwise it's Gordon Ramsay's recipe.

I need lasagne now. With a big green salad and some garlic bread. Cannot be beaten.

My nana used to make it with almost no meat and TONS of white sauce (made with makro skimmed milk which was almost see through) and pasta. You could probably use it to build walls. I loved it though (pasta was still a new thing to this Irish household, and Granda didn't eat garlic, but did like that herby bread...)

If anyone would like to package some meaty cheesy bubbling pasta goodness and send it this way it would be MOST welcome!