What makes your lasagne special?

[flugelhorn81]

I make lasagne quite often, and am trying to perfect it. I've played around with adding pancetta, porcini and roasted aubergine or peppers. Does anyone make an amazing lasagne and what makes yours special?

I used to make lasagne in my youth which was effectively mince with ragu sauce and cheesy sauce over the lasagne layers.... then I realised the traditional italian lasagne doesnt have tomatos and flavours are somewhat different. I use an old traditional italian recipe which is a ragu cooked for 2 hrs which consists of carrots, onion, garlic, celery, garlic, pancetta , mince, white wine, nutmeg, oregano and chopped chicken livers... tablespoon of tomato paste and 250mls of beef stock. thats it....add cream at end of two hours and take off the heat and mix in an egg....bechamel is standard flour, butter and milk, nutmeg and bay leaf....layers are meat sauce, sprinkle of mozzarella, lasagne sheets, sauce and parmesan and repeat...yum

Best one I had had lots of layers of pasta and not a lot of sauce but it had the tiniest cubes of hard cheese in, not melted, just to bite into. I cannot ever come close to that utter perfection.

loving this thread!

Mine isn’t traditional at all but I don’t like the authentic Italian recipe.

Marks & Spencer

Quertymcquerty my DM prefers my old lasagne

I love lasagne and have picked up tips.

I also do a roasted red pepper and red pesto lasagne which is bloody lovely. But you've got to make it when you see red peppers cheap as you need loads. I cut the recipe out of a newspaper about 20 years ago and it never fails if you just don't want to do meat.

@KaliforniaDreamz me too! So many great tips to try out! I had no idea it would be so popular.

I am def going to put nutmeg in as i love that taste in moussaka.

happy weekend all!

Dolmio white sauce, extra tomatoes black pepper, fresh basil and oregano and red wine in the pasta sauce and far too much tomato purée, use mince with a high fat content and then drain it off instead of lean mince (tasteless and overpriced).
I never Blanche the lasagne sheets because I like it starchy and tend to make a cheese blend for the topping. The more layers the better, too.

I'm making a lasagne using some of these tips. I've added milk to my ragu and I was very sceptical but it really works - adds some richness.