My Lasagna

NOTE: The preparatory for this recipe may be long and tedious but I guarantee that it will be completely worth it! Also I strongly recommend you to make the sauce the night before because the sauce will be wetter and better to soak the Lasagna sheets.

I'd like to share with you a personal recipe that I've concocted by combining my mom's bolognaise recipe and Jamie Oliver's lasagna recipe. I'm sure many of you enjoy eating lasagna but wouldn't it be great to be able to make a lasagna you can proudly take ownership of?

I assure you that you cannot go wrong if you follow this recipe step by step. And remember to make sure that your lasagna sheets are soaked in your bolognaise sauce. If it isn't soaked you will end up with crunchy bits in your lasagna.

So let's begin...in order to make lasagna, you will need two types of sauces: red sauce & white sauce. The red sauce is your usual bolognaise sauce and your white sauce is your bechamel sauce. Let's learn how to make the red sauce first...

RED SAUCE
What you need:

About 2-3 carrots. Dice them like so...

A big onion and a small one and some garlic. The more onions you use, the sweeter the sauce will be. The more garlic you use, the tastier the meat becomes. In this red sauce I used 500g of minced mutton because I think it is more fragrant. You can also use beef or pork or veal. I highly recommend red meat because it works well with red wine.

A bay leaf and some italian seasoning.

2 cans of whole peeled tomatoes. A friend asked me if you could use fresh tomatoes instead but I don't know how much it would affect the taste. I always recommend people to experiment. Also get a bottle of cheap red wine to cook with.

 

I'm sharing with you how my daddy taught me to dice onions. Slice your onions horizontally then vertically. Don't slice all the way through or the onion will fall apart. Then dice as shown above. My buddy Ali told me that if you place a glass of water where you're chopping you won't cry Onion Tears.

Dump in your diced onions and garlic in a deep sauce pan and saute in olive oil for a few minutes till it becomes fragrant. Throw in a bay leaf or two as well so the taste can infuse into the oil.

Add in your minced meat and fry along with your onions. Once they turn brown like this, throw in your carrots and pour in the wine. You may use as much as you like.

Allow the wine to fully absorb into the meat. Once your meat appears dry, add in the 2 cans of tomatoes. Season with Italian Seasoning and let the sauce simmer for 30 minutes. Add in some salt and black pepper to taste.

WHITE SAUCE

What you need:

Pour in some (300ml) cooking cream into a mixing bowl. Roughly chop a tin of anchovies and dump it into the cream. Add some black pepper and stir. That's it!

LASAGNA ASSEMBLING

What you need:

First and foremost, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius!

My mom taught me a non-messy way of greasing a baking bowl. Pour in the olive oil (or butter) and use a kitchen towel to spread the grease all over the bowl.

Start off the first layer with the lasagna sheets. Break the sheets to make sure the entire base is covered by the sheets. Apply a generous amount of red sauce all over the lasagna sheets (MAKE SURE IT'S FULLY COVERED OR YOUR LASAGNA WILL END UP UNCOOKED AND CRUNCHY!)

Pour over some white sauce and sprinkle some mozarella cheese. Continue layering and finish the final layer with lasagna sheets and your remaining white sauce. Again, make sure all the sheets are soaked. Cover the entire area with mozarella cheese and let it stand for a bit (so the juices can seep through).

Once your crown arrives, put your lasagna in the oven and bake from 20 minutes. Once the top is nice and brown (like below) remove from the oven. Slice in even squares and serve immediately. Goes very well with a green salad.

There you go...the best lasagna is eaten at home, made with your very own hands!