I’m going to make lasagne for the first time ever - any tips or tricks?

[YoongiMarryMe]

I do cook, honest guv, but no-one but me has had any interest in lasagne and I can’t be bothered making it for just me! But youngest DS has asked to try it so I now need to make an Epic Lasagne so he likes it and I have an excuse to make it fairly often from now on.

Help me Obi-Wan Mumsnet, you’re my only hope.

Make the ragu one day and have half as spaghetti Bolognese - I do mine in the pressure cooker with a long simmer on keep warm afterwards.

Next day making the bechamel can be sped up by using a stick blender to mix the fat and flour into the liquid - do leave it to bubble for 5 mins or so for the flour to cook.

Finally I get better results with fresh pasta than dried - extra flavour and no risk of it being dry.

It's either too much sauce or too much liquid - I'd experiment a bit until you find the best combination 🤗 It's actually not that much ragu per layer

Jesus wept, who on earth decided chicken livers should go in a lasagne 🤢

Definitely.
Her ragu takes 3?4? hours in the oven but worth it.

This is how I do mine. I use fresh sheets of pasta and just make my ragu so that I can freeze the rest and either eat it with pasta or make a second lasagne another time. I used the Sarah Cook recipe on BBC good food as a template but I have made it so many times I just make it. I do put in more herbs.

The Italians. The chicken livers really add a depth of flavour to the ragu. Bit of a faff to prepare them, but worth it.

Unfortunately, Delia's current recipe on her own website omits them. This is the original recipe for the ragu. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/anauthenticragubolog_66229

She also adds mozzarella now. I don't.

Have you ever tried it?

Have made lots of different recipes plus just busked it with my own I would highly recommend following your suggestion of recipetineats… have not yet made an awful thing from her recipes… I sing her praises from the rooftops….

Don't make it sloppy. The best lasagnes are firmish imo.
Cheese on every layer

If it’s that common I probably have 🫣 I had no idea

The Italians.

Mozzarella I love on it!

Please don't do this.

I use standard Bolognese recipe (finely chopped onions, add carrots, then meat, once browned some garlic, seasoning, couple of crushed bay leaves , then instead of normal tinnes tomatoes I add concentrated tinned tomatoes diluted with bit of water so that it can be poured-did this by mistake once, a total game changer), then let tomato sauce reduce a bit before adding a bit of milk towards the end, this makes it lil bit creamy and softens the meat. Then standard layering - bechamel at the bottom-lasagne sheets-bolognese-bechamel. Three times like that. Once I put final lasagne sheets I only put bechamel and grated mozzarella on top. Then in the oven till cheese is brown. Set aside for sometime et voilà. Sometimes I add red wine to bolognese for some depth of flavour (I never use wine for cooking that I wouldn't enjoy drinking too). Good luck.

I know. I was just trying to ease the OP into it. Get her away from this talk of Dolmio Bolognese sauce, or white sauce!

I absolutely love homemade lasagne, OP, but it is a massive faff if you don't pre-make the ragu.

Just buy the big jar of dolmio white lasagne sauce rather than make a bechamel, and use the pre-grated mozzarella and cheddar mix for maximum stringy brown bubbliness.
And a good slosh of Worcester sauce will make your ragu even nicer

Urgh, no, on several counts.

I'm struggling to understand what's such a faff about making lasagne tbh. Ragu is some chopping and cooking and then mostly ignoring. Bechamel is quick to make. Assembling is easy.

If you make your white sauce yourself don't be scared when you make the roux and it's stiff at first. I thought I'd done it wrong as nothing I'd ever made looked like it but it turned out fine once added to the thinner part of the sauce.

I had a little nap and woke to so many more helpful posts!

Son would like it on Friday so am taking the advice here and making it on Thursday.
I've never even seen a chicken liver so won’t be adding any this time but will definitely see about adding them to a future lasagne if this one goes well!

You've all made me feel like I’ve got this and will have the most epic of lasagnes

There will be salad but it won’t be massive and there will be garlic bread because carbs! <drool>

I think it should be white sauce. A small glass of red wine in the ragu. Cheese on top.

(And definitely not from a jar)

My ex mil is in southern Italy.

they don’t bother with the white or cheese sauce at all.

not too much ragu per layer or will be sloppy.

I freeze it cooked, in glass individual containers