Making a lasagne from scratch

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Does anyone actually see the return of investment of time and money here?

I spent 2.5 hours making one (before it even went into the oven). The bechemel sauce took an hour. I don’t know where the time went but melting butter was fast and adding flour but stirring in all that milk and keeping the thickness too forever and I still ran out for the top layer which was devastating (it’s a one layer lasagne). Grating 50g Parmesan to go in is a work out, that’s before the 75g of cheddar to go on the top of it all. I did have kids with me but I wouldn’t ever bother doing it again.

I grew up eating dolmio made lasagnes and that’s how I was taught but since knowing that’s not the right way and additives etc, I’ve just bought lasagne from the deli or restaurants if I go out. Shop bought Charlie Bingham is lovely.

2.5 hours is such a long time. Does anyone do this regularly? It’s like two meals. A bolognaise then a bechemel and that’s before the art of the quantities and building the darn thing.

AIBU to feel so frustrated by this and not want to ever bother again. (Not going back to dolmio either)

I saw nigella's labour of love lasagne recipe, with the pasta from scratch too

I want to try it once but I imagine that would be it, it seems taxing

An hour on a bechemel??? I reckon including grating cheese, it's 20 mins at the most.

I just buy better quality sauces they probably aren’t than Dolmio, I don’t actually like lasagna or bolognaise type stuff, the folks in this house can just like it or lump it!

I can knock up a lasagne in 30mins tbh. Don't think I could make it take 2.5hrs if I tried.

I love a good lasagne. I don't think they're hard to make but it can be time consuming. I have been known to use ready made bechamel sauce...

I always make from scratch but it only takes me 20 mins to prep and then 25 mins in the oven.

bechemel sauce takes 5 minutes

I use dolmio

Bechamel sauce; put equal amounts of flour/butter in a pan with milk, whisk as you heat. It really isn’t that hard. Frozen low fat mince so no draining needed.

Blimey.........usually takes me about an hour to.make one entirely from scratch. You can start melting the butter for bechemal while onions softening, add flour and cook off while meat browning, add milk and stir to thicken when tomatoes added and cooking.

Mind you I've made it dozens of times so you do get much faster.

Yes I do, because I hate jars of pre made sauces with all the additives and they don’t taste as good as home made. It doesn’t take me anywhere near 2.5 hours though, I can make a quick one in around 30 minutes or an hour if putting more effort in.

It’s never taken me anything like 2.5 hours to make a lasagne. A bechemal takes 10 minutes. I don’t weigh or measure anything either. I cook a lot more bolognese than lasagne mostly because my kids are small and lasagne is harder for them to eat, and most of my cooking is done in a rush after work anyway, but I think the issue here might be more your lack of experience making a lasagne than it being a particularly laborious dish.

It takes me an age to do mine too. I infuse my milk with onion for the sauce. It's always fabulous and I make a massive batch of ragu when doing my lasange and use that for my meat layer. Then I can freeze portions of the ragu and lasange. I don't know if it's worth it but no way could I eat the jar sauces.

I put the bolognaise in the slow cooker and do the cheese sauce with full fat cream and milk so no waiting for it to thicken. I use chedder on top and in the sauce not Parmesan. I have never used jars in a lasagne, it is one of my favourite meals and always worth it for me. I make one for tea that night and one for the freezer and with bolognaise for spaghetti and cheese sauce for mac and cheese left over too. I get about 5 days of family meals from this.

So much sympathy! Am sure there will be loads of people saying they can make it dead quick but it’s always a long one for me too. However, I have improved a lot!

Tips - make the meat bolognaise one day, fridge it or freeze it if need be. Then do bechemel and assembly the next day. It really helps with the standing up weariness! And it’s easy enough to quickly make the sauce then just let it slowly simmer for ages while you do other stuff.

Bechemel - I heat the milk up in the microwave before adding it in. It really speeds things up. Two Pyrex jugs of hot milk, one after the other. I also always double the amount it says in case of running out. Worst case freeze some for pasta sauce / macaroni cheese at a later date.

Assembly - heat the Bol sauce back up. The layers can be really really thin. One mince lump’s worth per layer. And don’t stress about distributing the bechemel too evenly - it all works out.

I usually get someone else to grate the cheese. And I use the big box grater on the finer setting for Parmesan, not the super fine microplane one which takes longer.

Or heat up milk in a pan and add mcdougles thickening granules then season

They are a bit of a labour of love. To make it all from scratch (chopping onion, making sauce etc), I can easily spend an hour. I now make 2 or 3 at the same time to freeze, as it only takes me about 20% longer to make all 3 or 4 of them.

I don't make lasagne very often, but when I do I only ever make it in my huge catering-size tray (it doesn't sit on a self in the oven, but has lips that slide into the rail shelf guides so that it can take up the absolute maximum space in the oven) and can take enough for 4 family meals worth. Then it's worth my while to make an enormous vat of bolognese sauce and another enormous vat of Bechamel - because making 4 times the quantity takes about the same time, perhaps a few minutes more for a bit more chopping and grating, but I have a food processor so can grate a block of cheese in 10 seconds and similarly can dice onions etc pretty quickly. Done that way, each meal takes about a quarter of the time.

However I am concerned by your mentioning of a "one layer" lasagne - such a concept is surely an abhomination againt god and nature? A good lasagne should be at least 4 layers, or perhaps 6, and I am not sure a single layer could qualify as the same kind of dish?

Traditional lasagne made with ragu bolognese: takes me ages, because I use Delia Smith's recipe for the ragu, and it makes a huge quantity and cooks for hours. Well worth it, because I freeze most of it for other times, lasagne or spag bol.

I make the ragu a day or two before I intend to make the lasagne because the flavour improves, as well as wanting to spread the workload. Making the bechamel takes a few minutes. Grating the Parmesan, ditto. A few minutes to assemble. Job done.

Vegetarian lasagne: also takes a while, as I use roast vegetables, and there's a lot of chopping. Here again, though, it's worth it as a fair amount of the lasagne ends up in the freezer for an easy meal or two another time.

i made one last week using Tom Kerridge recipe, roasting the mince first ,also roasting the tomatoes 🍅, lots of red wine and just let it tootle away for hours, made a huge one and had lots for the freezer, absolute faff but so tasty, I dont do it often, 2 hours seems excessive though, I can knock up a bog standard one in an hour

What, including all the prep of the veg for the meat sauce and everything? And it needs simmering for a good long time to be thick enough otherwise the end result lasagne will just be slop.

Make double the ragu a day or so before and serve half as part of spaghetti bolognese or similar pasta dinner. Store in the fridge overnight. Then when you want the lasagne, you only need to make the béchamel and assemble it. Much easier!

I buy the white sauce make the rest. It levels it up without the fuss . The tomato sauce is so easy to make .

I used to make a huge slow cookers worth of bolognaise in advance

I’m with you OP, it takes an hour and a half for me because I make the tomato sauce and a rushed tomato sauce is a pan of thin acidic sadness.

You can leave it to do its own thing, though.

Even this recipe doesn’t let you get away with less than 1 hr 40 in total. Much of that is the bolognaise bubbling away and then 45 mins in the oven.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/classic-lasagne-0

I reckon it takes an hour to get to the stage of putting it in the oven but I have to work quite intensely if we're making everything except pasta from scratch.

I can see how it would take 2.5 hours is you're finishing one thing before starting on the next.

It's so good to eat though. I might make one this weekend 🤔