Making a lasagne from scratch

[tangerinemagic]

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 hear you. I'm a really slow cook and a lasagne takes me a similar amount of time. I do it rarely as we do all love it properly homemade but I need to have a completely free afternoon. I've also never mastered the art of a non lumpy bechamel so I've given up trying now - just bung it all in the pan together, heat it up, give it a whizz with the stick blendet and then heat some more.

I just asked my DH, who is the cook in our household, and he makes the most fantastic lasagne from scratch. He says a good ragu takes about two hours to cook, and the béchamel is ten to fifteen minutes, and then maybe 20 to 30 minutes in the oven. HOWEVER, he very often makes the ragu the day before, saving time on the day of cooking, plus leaving it overnight develops the flavour.

I do it & my mum/grandma did it about once a week max so I do think it's worth the effort

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall published his mum's recipe. It takes seven hours.

I can put together a lasagne in two hours and that includes cooking the meat sauce for 90 minutes. Bechamel takes me 15 minutes.

I use jars

It is labour intensive. I used to make 2 at a time and freeze one.

Sorry your DH was such a dick, @tangerinemagic - egg and (oven) chips for him from now on.

I give up making lasagna mines always too wet somehow. Maybe too much white sauce.

It is something I very rarely make for that reason. But blimey, 2 1/2 hrs seems extreme. A bechamel is really quick to make. If I do make one I’ll do a big batch of bolognese one day, then use the rest to put in lasagne the next, so it’s only the bechamel and putting it together I need to do.

Dolmio is pretty good in terms of natural ingredients, there are probably just as many additives in the one you cook from scratch if using butter. Just stick with the dolmio.

What?

I regularly make Lasagne from scratch. It can be time consuming, but is worth the effort. Shouldn't take an hour to make a bechamel sauce though. I know you probably don't feel like making it again, but you'll get better each time you make it. Sorry, but shop bought doesn't even come close.

Lasagne takes time. La besciamella no. 15 minutes.
The ragù is minimum of 2 hours cooking time.
And il soffritto is a must.

When I do a lasagna properly it can take me most of the day but it is not labour intensive and I normally have some bits prepared in the freezer. Last time I did one it took.

2 hrs to make the stock (Probably 5 mins of actual work the rest was just boiling away in the pan)
2 hrs for the ragu ( probably 15 mins of actual cooking)
20 mins for the béchamel
5 mins to assemble.

like previous posters I will make much more than I need and either freeze whole other additional lasagnas or just the ragu for future use.

you should try again, you will find it goes so much smoother the second time.

Sounds about right to me, I (we) would typically make twice as much ragu as required for the lasagne, and then you can have another meal for the same effort, plus a bit of reheating the next day - we'd often do another pasta or rice.

Yep, it takes ages. It takes more effort than a roast dinner, so I don't make it very often.

I tend to double the amount of bechemel sauce needed as it never seems enough!

But it's so good!

I don't understand. I buy block butter. No additives at all.

I always make double bolognese and freeze a portion to use in lasagna. So on the day of cooking I just defrost the meat sauce and make the bechamel which I actually find quite straightforward, thanks to a Mac and cheese loving toddler. So I can put it together on about 20-30 min.

The only thing I make from scratch is lasagne. It takes 45 mins to prep then 30 in the oven. I think mine is quite basic using an American type recipe.

thanks. Clearly bit off way more than I could chew, naively didn’t realise the enormity of doing it from scratch first time (while making 2 milkshakes et al for DC1).

hoped DH might love coming home to a comforting meal but instead I appear to have lost my cool with DC1 and the bechemel running out, and now he’s annoyed at me for stressing him out further after a stressful day he had. He really lost it saying he could do with out it and why do I bother trying to cook. In all honesty he is the cook in our house but he recently took on a new job (he’s way out of his depth and struggling) so I thought I would take up the mantle on cooking. I just made a mistake on the gravity of it all.

I really am on cusp of tears as now I’m not talking to him. my intentions were only well intended.

I buy ready made lasagna and serve it with fresh vegetables or salad to make it slightly healthier.

The tomato sauce is, the "creamy" sauce isn't. https://www.dolmio.co.uk/products/lasagne/dolmio-lasagne-creamy-white-sauce-jar

YANBU

They're a labour of love and a ball ache.

A rushed, or 'quick' béchamel always tastes too powdery to me. I find that although you can make a quick white sauce that has the right kind of look and texture, a 'proper' béchamel sauce really needs time to lose the floury-ness in the background and balance properly. But again, I love cooking, so getting it right and spending time over it suits me fine.

My béchamel takes the best part of an hour, as I also leave it cool slightly before using it, but that's when I make the pasta and cook the ragu and so on, so it's all happening together for much of the time.

Me too. People always use it on MN as an example of something that takes ages but I don’t really get it.

Explain