Can you help me improve my lasagna

[Autviaminveniamautfaciam]

I've been making this lasagna, with a few tweets, for over 25 years. Everyone likes it, but I think it can be improved. It is a staple in my house as I have hungry boys and when I make it, I do it in a massive dish and am able to freeze it.

My current recipe:

Diced onion
2 x diced garlic cloves
1kg of mince
button mushrooms, sliced
250ml of chicken stock
2-3 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 small pot of tomato puree
Seasoning, basil, oregano and marjoram
(all sautéed then left for 40 mins to simmer)

Topping

2 tbsps of butter and plain flour
1.5 litres of milk, boiled then added to above paste
salt
add beaten egg

sauce, then dried lasagna, sauce then dried lasagna, then pour over sauce, grate parmesan on top, let cook in oven for 45 mins with no tin foil.

So, my Lasagna gets a welcoming but I want to change it up by making it really really lovely. I once went round to an acquaintances house and her DH was Italian and she made a Lasagna with his Granny's recipe and it was beautiful. Unfortunately she wouldn't give me any tips or share the beloved recipe, which I don't blame her.

My own feedback is - I think there is too much meat. I think the tomatoes are too processed. The Italian lasagna I had was made with less meat and fresh tomatoes.

I don't want to start adding carrot or other things but want to make a very traditional lasagna. I think it is OK, but an Italian would probably turn their noses up at it.

Tips please for a traditional lasagna, but one that would put a smile on a nonna.

Not going to comment on the ingredients (other than 1kg of mince sounds a lot!) but my method of layering is :

Thin layer of meat sauce to 'wet' the dish then,

Pasta
Meat sauce
White sauce

Repeat x2 or 3 if dish is deep,

Then top with grated cheese.

Ooh love lasagne .. as someone else said it’s much better reheated the next day when it’s more solid and you can slice it like a cake

English mustard and cheese in your white sauce, take out Stock and add a good glugg of goood olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of tomato purée plus a little balsamic vinegar

Now I have had time to think about it I am mortified at putting mushrooms in my sauce.

This is the best thread ever. I never new about chicken livers or anything like that. I am on it!

Passata instead of tinned tomatoes, add some cherry tomatoes if you want a bit more texture.
Red wine (plenty) after browning the meat and let it bubble down to almost nothing.
Beef stock instead of chicken, and I add a splash of either balsamic vinegar or Worcestershire sauce depending what's in the cupboard.
It needs to be simmered for at least an hour.
I know you said no carrots but I think finely diced carrot is good. I like the PP's suggestion of pancetta as well...was planning on doing a lasagne on Saturday so might try that!
Oh and nutmeg in the bechemel sauce.

Also read an article by tom kerridge the other day saying he roasts the mince first...

Unfortunately she wouldn't give me any tips or share the beloved recipe, which I don't blame her.

Maybe it was Charlie Bighams

You need to work on the bechmel sauce - use whole milk infused with cloves and a bay leaf. Add a little grated nutmeg. Waitrose sauce flour is much better than plain flour. Don't add cheese! It will
Make the whole dish too cheesy

I would add pancetta to your ragu and lose the garlic, it doesn't need garlic and it can overpower it. I'd also use rich beef stock rather than chicken and add a splash of red wine. Simmer for a few hours.

I always top mine with buffalo mozzarella 👌

We put ours on a low heat covered with foil and then towards the end remove the foil so the topping can brown.

Add a butt tonne more garlic and some wine to the meat sauce. Let it simmer on low for two hours topping up when needed.

Also needs more layers - meat sauce, pasta, white sauce, Parmesan - repeat 3 times.

And yes always passata not chopped tomatoes

Don't add stock. Do use a soffritto of celery, carrot, onion before adding the meat. Cook the meat sauce for hours. Use 5 layers of pasta and not do much meat. Use green pasta! I live in the home of lasagna and these are the tips I've picked up. (Lots of people here mince the meat twice to get it really fine textured but I don't like that).

I use an 80s carrier's kitchen recipe that has
225g minced pork
225g minced beef
Carrots in small dice
Sliced mushrooms
Couple of pork sausages in small dice
Lardons - I think from memory
Tomatoes
Tom purée
Mixed herbs
Slug of dry martini

When you make the sauce, add 2 carrots, a bay leaf and and onion with several cloves stuck in it to the milk. Bring to the boil and then leave to infuse for 30 mins. Strain and use the flavoured milk for the sauce.

Also, use parmesan or grano padano for the cheese.

My recipe is very similar but I add red wine and use fresh lasagne which I think really makes a difference and I add nutmeg to the cheese sauce x

I use pasata sauce over chopped tomatoes, a heaped teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a good dollop of Worcestershire sauce. Then let let it simmer down .

www.justalittlebitofbacon.com/rich-complex-traditional-bolognese-sauce/
This is the meat sauce I use, then I add some of the white sauce to every layer I include a little freshly ground nutmeg but no egg in mine. Then a small amount of mozzarella in every layer too.
On the top, the rest of the bechamel, more mozzarella, then a good sprinkling of Parmesan.

Passata (or tinned tomatoes blitzed with a stick blender)
A bit of tomato ketchup (I saw a PP had said to add sugar, I suppose ketchup does the same job).
Some smoked bacon cut into small squares.
Sometimes a dash of soy sauce if it's tasting a bit bland.
Sometimes finely chopped mushrooms to bulk out the meat (I'd use 2 cloves garlic to 500g minced beef)
Based on Delia's Ragu Bolognese from the odd fashioned cookbook.

For the white sauce I use 50g butter, melted. Then 50g flour off the heat and then add 500ml milk in stages back on the heat, whisking until it starts to thicken. A bit of nutmeg (not much) grated into the sauce adds a bit of interest. Quantities can easily be altered up or down.

I layer it meat sauce, white sauce, lasagne sheets with a final layer of white sauce only on the top layer of lasagne sheets and then put some grated cheddar or parmesan on the top.

Just re read your OP that you wanted a proper Italian recipe, which mine with ketchup and soy sauce clearly is not.

Well here's mine. It may not be traditional but goes down very well. I find it such a pain in the arse to make, I make a lot of it and freeze.

Ragu
3Kg 10% beef mince - fat fried off
4 large red onions
4 tins chopped toms (good quality like cirio)
2/3 red wine - shiraz or merlot
4 big taps lazy garlic
5 bay leaves
1 heaped esp dried oregano
Salt and pepper

Soften onions
Add fried off mince
Add red wine and bring to boil
Add garlic, salt and pepper
Add tinned toms and puree
Add herbs
Simmer for 90 mins

2.5 pints bechamel with added cheddar and parmesan - a good cheese sauce will do.

Milk infused with onion, bay and peppercorns (bring to boil and cool)
Melt 3 good slices of butter - add 4 desert spoons (rounded) flour and stir until it's unctious. If too dry add not butter. Add infused and strained milk slowly. When consistency coats back of spoon add 8 oz grated cheddar; 1 oz grated parmesan.

In three or four square tins for 4-6 layer x 3 - ragu, pasta sheets, sauce. Add cheddar/parmesan to to layer. Bake on 160 for 90 mins.

Reserve enough ragu for an easy spag bol that day.

2/3rds of a bottle (not 2 or 3 bottles!)

@Autviaminveniamautfaciam

Now I have had time to think about it I am mortified at putting mushrooms in my sauce.

This is the best thread ever. I never new about chicken livers or anything like that. I am on it!

Nothing at all wrong with mushrooms!

@Winederlust

Also read an article by tom kerridge the other day saying he roasts the mince first...

Yes!!

Incidentally I watched Delia on iplayer last night - her sauces section. She put butter, flour and milk in one pan and doesn't bother making a roux first. How have I never thought of doing that?! Genius and that's why I'm not rich.

Has anyone mentioned roasting the minced meat?

Tom. Kerridge does this and now I do too... Makes it much more flavoursome and the meat is not mushy.

Roast on high heat for about 50 mins.. Stir every 10. Much easier than browning in the pan which is hard to do without stewing it.

I am slow at typing and realise now just above me the roasted meats are mentioned... Oh well good to see its popular!

Enjoy!!

@MojoJojo71

I’ve recently discovered Henderson’s relish and put some in my lasagne, it was bloody lovely

This! We have Gousto and they do a fab lasagne using Henderson's relish and tomato 'fritto' instead of tinned toms

I always cook the sauce on a very low heat for a long time before using, often in the slow cooker. When I'm feeling organised I double or triple it and batch freeze it but I don't always remember!