Beef Lasagna

04 Aug Beef Lasagna

Lasagna is a comfort meal for us and was one of the first savoury meal that I learnt how to make it. The thing that I love about lasagna is that is like a blank canvas that you could create new flavours from scratch only knowing the basics. This beef lasagna will be the classic one for us, so we hope you like it and replicate it.

Ingredients:

Tomato Sauce

500 grams of minced beef

1 diced onion

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 laurel leaf

3 dried mushrooms

1.6 kg tomato diced (I use the can tomatoes)

1 glass of red wine

250 ml beef stock

1 teaspoon sugar

Salt and pepper

oil

Bechamel Sauce

4 tablespoon butter

4 tablespoon flour

500 ml milk

nutmeg

salt and pepper

For the assembly

1 box of lasagna sheets

500 grams of grated mozzarella

200 grams of grated parmesan cheese

Prep:

Tomato Sauce:

1. In a pot over medium heat, pour some olive oil to heat. We are going to fry the minced meat in batches to seal it. As soon it turns golden just put it out of the pot and reserve it in a bowl. Continue until you finish with all the meat. 
2. In the same oil cook the minced onion and add the minced garlic. Cook until is translucent. Add the tomato paste, laurel leaf, dry mushrooms and the diced tomato. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add the cooked meat. Pour the wine, stock, sugar and a little of salt and pepper. We will test it at the end to rectify.
3. Reduce the heat to minimum and cook the sauce for 45-1 hour until it will reduce the liquids. Keep moving every ten minutes to prevent the burning on the bottom. When is ready test the salt, pepper and also sugar (some batches of tomatoes are to sour so we need to contrast that with some sugar) when you are happy with the seasoning set aside. 

Bechamel Sauce

1. In a saucepan over medium heat melt the butter. As soon as it melts add the flour and move quickly to prevent burning. Now add the milk little by little mixing well after each addition. Otherwise, it will form some lumps. Let it boil for a couple of minutes stirring constantly. Turn off the heat and add some nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste. Set aside. 

For the assembly:

1. Preheat the oven at 180ºC. Grease a baking tray where you will serve the lasagna.
2. Pour a scoop of tomato sauce and spread thru (is only to prevent the pasta for burning) Put a layer of lasagna sheets. Add a couple of scoops of tomato sauce and a couple of spoons of bechamel sauce and spread evenly the over the pasta. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Repeat those steps until you full your tray. The great about lasagna is that you can add as much sauce, cheese, etc as you like to your layers, so every lasagna will be different. Finish the lasagna with an extra layer of parmesan cheese so you could have this grill looking at the end.
3. Bake the lasagna for 45 minutes or until it golden the cheese. Let is rest for 10 minutes before cutting otherwise you will not appreciate the layers. Serve and enjoy!