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.

So cook it, freeze it and then when needed defrost and cook it again?

I’ve found the Gousto recipe nice -

Onions and carrot salt fry in pan
Add the mince, brown it
Add torn up chestnut mushrooms if you like like and chopped tomatoes, grind of black pepper and 2 chopped garlic cloves

Add your stock - beef cubes, 2tbsp Henderson’s relish, good squeeze of tomato purée, pinch of sugar (bit of oregano optional)

Simmer to a ragu consistency
Would recommend making bechamel sauce as jar is yuck
Layer up, sheets then ragu
Pour over bechamel
Grate a load of cheese on top
30mins in the oven till pasta sheets are cooked and the cheese bubbles/crisps

Baby leaf salad with some Balsamic vinegar, olive oil salt and pepper on the side, yum!

Good luck with however you choose to make it!

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon doing a cooking course with a lovely Italian Nonna in Tuscany whilst on holiday there. She spoke not a word of English, but luckily her lovely sons were there to translate...

We used a 50/50 mix of pork and beef, plenty of finely chopped veg (carrots, celery, onion), a decent glug of wine and not as many tomatoes as you'd think. She was very clear that we were not to boil the meat.
I've followed her method ever since, except I do use tinned tomatoes and probably make it a bit wetter than she'd approve of.

Totally agree with all the people saying not too much meat per layer (I put 4 layers in a standard depth lasagne dish), and fresh pasta makes such a big difference. I think there's a sound logic to this, as fresh pasta is pliable, so when you layer it up it naturally comes into contact with the sauce, so it cooks in a very different way to dried pasta, which has lots of air pockets around it (unless you have thick layers of wet sauce in which case it will absorb moisture from the off). I always make my own pasta for lasagne (5 mins to mix, 5 mins to roll out) too, but I'd definitely get fresh pasta if I didn't do that.
Also agree about letting it stand before you serve it.

I make double quantities of the sauce (one pack of beef mince, one of pork) and freeze half. Takes most of the faff out for the second time around.

Done well, it is the food of the Gods. Done half heartedly, it can be a disappointing chore.

Microwave usually

Yeah basically like a ready meal lasagne but home made few minutes in the microwave to reheat

Buy the Lidl one …….

My friend makes amazing lasagne. Her secret to make it the day before refrigerate and cook the following day. The flavours are enhanced.

I always do a really big batch of 6 hour ragu the day before and we have that for dinner over pappardelle and maybe tenderstem or salad. Next day it’s lasagne, make the béchamel about as thick as custard. I make such a rich ragu that I don’t add cheese to the white sauce, but on the top layer I do a really thick layer of it with tonnes of cheese, I mix grated cheddar, blobs of mozzarella and then grated Parmesan. Leave it ages before cutting it up. It’ll firm right up as it cools. If you’re using dry pasta then you want a more liquid ragu than if you’ve precooked the sheets. I always use dry but I add a good quality passata to the ragu after we’ve had it with pasta, to thin it out a bit. Also I let everything cool right down before I do the layering and putting in the oven.

Same. I use Rachel Roddy’s recipe. It’s incredible.

I agree with her recipes being good . Just stick with this one. It is a lot of work but it’s worth it. No jars ever also . I love lasagne and have always been on the lookout for something always better and easier but now I stick with recipetineats because it works .

Wow, this is a hot topic it seems. I would say, go with RecipeTin Eats she is amazing; I use tons of her recipes and they all work really well. As for lasagne, I make it all the time and do not follow any recipe. For the meat sauce I only use onion, garlic, beef, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, paprika, basil, bay leaf and oregano. I do not make béchamel but use tons of mozzarella, couple of tbs of sour cream, two eggs and some Parmesan. Parmesan on top. I never freeze lasagne, or any other pasta meal but I am sure that it would work.

I would not mind putting some spinach or mushrooms as well, but my kids prefer it like this, so. I agree that it works the best when you let it sit for a while, but my kids usually cannot wait for it. Happy cooking!

I made a great no-meat lasagne this evening, using the green lasagne sheets left over from Easter and cooked green veg.
Traditionally green lasagne go with asparagus but we’re not millionaires!

Mix a small jar of pesto into your bechamel and use this on every layer of lasagne sheets. Thin out with milk if necessary.
Bottom layer green beans and “pestamel”
Middle layer chopped spinach with garlic
Top later peas.
Last layer sauce and grated cheese.
30 mins at 180 degrees and leave to rest before cutting.

Just don't.
It's really easy to make white sauce and only takes a few minutes and will taste much better.

Salad cream squirted across the lasagne sheets before the white sauce. ;)

Salad cream? I am clutching my pearls

Add balsamic to the ragu.. grated mozzarella between layers.. lots of white sauce

Give your head a wobble!

OP ignore almost all the advice you’ve been given here, especially anything that involves a jar! The recipe you posted is the one you want - I’d been making lasagne for years and my family liked it but I switched to the RecipeTinEats one and they love it!

Give yourself plenty of time. I usually start cooking the ragu at lunchtime and let it simmer through the afternoon. The bechamel is really easy and a lot faster if you heat the milk up first. Grate your own mozzarella for the topping. Gruyère is the nicest for the cheese sauce but cheddar/tasty is pretty good too. It is a faff to make but it serves us (family of 4 with older teens) for two meals.

Reading with interest and have saved your original recipe OP.

Honestly, the last really good lasagna I had was in a since closed down restaurant in Barcelona in 2015!

I've tried them more recently in Italian restaurants in our city and they've all massively disappointed, plus my own efforts have been too dry.

This and an authentic Thai green curry are my holy cooking grails...

don't invite garfield
if you are using fresh lasagne sheets, make at home. the refrigerated 'fresh' pasta is a gimmick unless you get it from an artisinal grocer who makes it there and then.

Good quality dried pasta works just as well. you can try filotea. do not cook lasagne sheets before layering. they will cook just fine in the oven.
the ragu.... I normally cook for at least 2 hours. sofrito cooked slowly with chilli flakes and rosemary. beef mince, good tomatoes (I use mutti), balsamic vinegar and sundried tomato puree.

bechamel - just a classic recipe should do with some cheese grated in and plenty of feshly grated nutmeg. grated pecorino Romano in-between the layers rather than parmesan. top layer should be lasagne sheet, then bechamel and finally grated pecoeino Romano. I don't put mozzarella, it's overkill. enjoy!

As others have said make a big one and freeze portions &/or batch cook bechamel and Ragu and freeze in silicone cake cases(I lay them in a plastic tub to avoid spillages, then move into freezer bags to save space once frozen). The blocks can be used individually for pasta sauce/mac cheese or to make lasagne of any size without lots of washing up. DD isn’t keen on lasagne so I often make myself a single portion one when she is at her dads. I wouldn’t bother if I had to start from scratch every time, but if the components just need defrosting and putting together it’s easy.

I never liked lasagne much so hardly ever made it. Then I had it at my cousin’s house in Milan and changed my mind.

I’ve tried a number of ways but never found much difference in taste from cooking for hours vs doing it a really simple way:

Use two jars of good Passata rather than sauce
Season and brown your mince - no need to cook for hours.
Make your own béchamel using any of the recipes suggested.
Romano and Parmigiana

I don’t even bother seasoning and heating the passata any longer. Sometimes I use mozzarella but usually don’t bother.

Definitely make it ahead of time. It only gets better.

Someone will come along and say I’m all wrong, but I don’t think the extra time on the sauce or the meat makes one bit of difference for this dish.

Do NOT click on the link the OP posted.

Although I'm not perfect, I don't like celery, so no sofrito for me.

I’m with you on the celery. May as well put green pepper in it. Blech

DH always reminds me it’s a pasta dish not a meat dish. I think everyone likes it done differently.

I cook the ragu the evening before for 6-8 hours in total.

I use frozen sofritto as a preference as it breaks down in the sauce and I also chop courgette finely and add.

https://www.ocado.com/products/chef-parmalat-bechamel-sauce-304870011?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADi6iHmI4qT64oBEfjgRK3fzgpcT4&gclid=CjwKCAjww_iwBhApEiwAuG6ccCr29BtgKS8NzUwnVZeImvx0ZJhu8PmowCZLEen2-lVUXtbDKrsLihoCGgEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I think the sauce needs to be more beef stock than tomato.

I use dried lasagne but soak in boiled water for one minute before layering.

It always tastes better the day after.

DH and I never agree on if it tastes better or worse than previous ones. I don’t follow a strict recipe and DD6 loves it so we put as much veg as possible in it.

Only make it every 3 months but make a lot to freeze.