Somewhere in the Now

I'm trying my hand away from Rome cooking Lasagna....I'm making it from scratch and using the Gino D'Campo recipe and the lasagna meat sauce just smells great......I'm using the last of my Dads fresh tomatoes so it's really going to be wholesome...well I hope so! I was not a fan of pasta when I was living in Rome but you know with the cold Irish winter descending rapidly on me I just got a craving.....so here goes.. I hope it turn out like Gino's...only I have no red wine for this so if this turns out OK I'll make it again.....smells so good......and I will be adding chickpeas at the end to the sauce....... I do love cooking and enjoy adding my own little twist to things. I have also added some sundried tomatoes 3 or 4, I guess, just to see what happens. The meat is from the local butchers up the road,so its fresh. It takes about 1 hour to make the sauce properly and then its another 30 mins in the oven to cook on top of that allowing more time for the home fire etc as not sure of the heating. I set oven to180 C/Gas mark 4.

Ingredients

9 fresh lasagne sheets (approx. 10 x 18 cm)
500 g minced beef
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped into 1 cm cubes
1 courgette, chopped into 1cm cubes
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1x 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 glass of Italian dry red wine
100 g parmesan cheese, freshly grated
10 basil leaves
50 g salted butter, cold and cut into 1cm cubes
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the béchamel sauce:

100 g salted butter
100 g plain flour
1 L full fat milk, cold
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Method: How to make The No 1 lasagne

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions, carrot and celery for 5 minutes on a medium heat. Add in the minced beef and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes stirring continuously until coloured all over. Season with salt and pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes stirring occasionally.

Pour in the wine, stir well and continue to cook until the wine has evaporated. (Approx. 5 minutes).

Add in the chopped tomatoes, the tomato puree, the courgettes and the basil, lower the heat and continue to cook for one hour, lid off, until you get a beautiful rich sauce. Stir occasionally. (After about 30 minutes, taste for seasoning).

In the meantime, to make the béchamel sauce, melt the butter in a large saucepan on a medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the cold milk, reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes whisking constantly. Once thickened, stir in half of the parmesan cheese with the nutmeg, season with salt and pepper and set aside to slightly cool.

Preheat your oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4.

Spread a quarter of the béchamel sauce on the bottom of a deep 2.2 litre ovenproof dish.

Lay 3 lasagne sheets on top and if necessary cut them to fit the dish.

Spread over half of the meat sauce then top with a third of the remaining béchamel sauce.

Lay 3 more sheets of lasagne on top and cover with the remaining meat sauce. Spread over half of the remaining béchamel sauce. Add a final layer of lasagne sheets and gently spread the rest of the béchamel on top making sure that you completely cover the lasagne sheets.

Sprinkle with the remaining parmesan and scatter over the cubed butter. Freshly ground some black pepper over the whole lasagne.

Cook on the bottom of a preheated oven at 180ºC for 30 minutes then place the dish in the middle of the oven, higher the temperature to 200ºC and continue to cook for a further 15 minutes until golden and crispy all over.

My picture to follow <3 data-blogger-escaped-div="div">