Lasagne

I don't make a lot of lasagne, as I find it a bit of a faff. However, we'd been eating spaghetti bolognaise for a few days, and we still hadn't finished that massive tub I'd taken out of the freezer. I made up the leftovers into a lasagne on Sunday night, for the children to have for their dinner on Monday. Then, shame of shame, instead of leaving it assembled in the fridge for our nanny to cook the next day, I cooked it in advance at 1am, just so that I could get the photo for my blog! Luckily, it wasn't too shrivelled up by the time the children got round to eating it, and they gobbled it up without complaint.

I find that the best way to get a lump-free bechamel sauce is to use a silicone whisk, which really gets into the edges of your saucepan.

To make a really lovely bechamel sauce, you could infuse your milk by heating it in a pan with some chopped onions, carrots, celery, a bay leaf and some peppercorns. Heat to just below boiling point, leave it to cool, then strain and use in your sauce. If you could be bothered, of course...

Ingredients

• A quantity of bolognaise sauce (5-6 ladle-fuls) - you can see my recipe here
• 40-50g of butter
• 2-3 heaped dessert spoons of plain flour
• Approx 3/4 to 1 pint of milk
• Approx 6-8 dried lasagne sheets
• A handful of grated cheese (I used cheddar)
• (optional) Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Serves 2-3

Instructions

Bechamel Sauce

• Melt the butter in a heavy-based pan until just beginning to bubble. Add the flour and stir to combine to a roux
• Add the milk, a little at a time, whisking constantly. The roux will absorb the milk and get quite lumpy to start with, but keep whisking and eventually it will begin to flow
• Once you have a glossy, thick sauce, lower the heat and stir occasionally, whilst you are building up your lasagne

Building the lasagne

• Take a lasagne dish and start with a thin layer of bolognaise sauce in the bottom. Dribble a layer of bechamel sauce over, and top with a layer of dried lasagne sheets
• Repeat with the bolognaise, bechamel and lasagne sheets until you have built the lasagne
• Finish with a covering of bechamel sauce, the sprinkle some grated cheese over the top

Lasagne ready for the oven

• Place in an oven at 190 degrees for 30 minutes
• Remove from the oven and serve - a simple salad with a vinaigrette makes a nice accompaniment

Fresh out of the oven (at 1 in the morning...)

Lasagne