Lasagna is one of those favourites that everyone seems to love, layers of pasta, creamy ricotta
cheese, and meat sauce, you can’t really go wrong.
Welcome to recipes by Carina where I show you how to make classic and simply delicious
recipes, make sure to subscribe for a new video each week.
We’re going to start with the meat sauce which is probably the most important part
of a lasagna.
There are a few tips and tricks to getting the perfect meat sauce which I will share
with you.
Using a sharp knife peel and dice a medium sized onion.
If you would like the full recipe for this lasagna it will be on my website as well as
the full measurements listed in the description box below.
I also have a few other pasta recipes so if you’re looking for any inspiration take
a look on my channel.
You want about a medium to small dice on these onions so they cook down.
If you’re not a pro at chopping or you just want an easier method you can also use a food
processor to give them a quick blitz, just make sure you stop before they turn into a
puree.
Place a heavy based fry pan over medium heat and add about a tablespoon of oil.
When the oil is hot add the diced onions and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
We don’t want to brown or caramelise the onions here, just sweat them to turn them
translucent.
This recipe for lasagna will feed between 4-5 people depending on how hungry you are.
I usually make this size and save the leftovers for lunch or dinner another day.
If you’re feeding more or you just want to make a larger batch for leftover, because
this lasagna makes the best leftovers, the recipe can easily be doubled.
Just make sure you’re using a large enough baking dish or else you might have a problem
with a little overflow.
While the onions are cooking seperate two garlic cloves from a bulb and place them whole
in a garlic press.
Crush the garlic into the frypan, using the wooden spoon to scrap it off.
You can also peel and dice the garlic by hand but using a garlic press is easier and so
much faster.
The cloves can go in whole, skin on.
Just make sure you’ve a good quality press so it can actually crush the garlic.
Cook for a further few minutes, stirring.
For this lasagna I’m just using beef but there are a few different options, it all
depends on what you prefer.
Just beef, a mixture of beef and pork or a mixture of beef and Italian sausage.
You’ll just need 500g or a pound in total.
Place your meat into the frypan with the onions and garlic and turn the heat up to high, using
your wooden spoon break the beef up as you stir.
The heat needs to be higher here to stop the beef just stewing.
As it cooks the meat will release moisture and if the heat is lower, rather than that
moisture cooking off and the beef frying it will puddle up and just end up boiling whats
in the pan.
This goes for most recipes where you are frying meat.
The flavour develops much better with a hot pan.
When the beef is starting to brown season with a generous pinch of salt as well as a
teaspoon or dried oregano.
We’ll be tasting and seasoning the meat sauce before assembling the lasagna so more
salt and pepper can be added then.
Continue to cook the beef until it has browned.
For the sauce part of this meat sauce we first need a third of a cup of tomato paste.
I wouldn’t say it’s cheating at all but tomato paste provides a huge shortcut.
The amount and depth of flavour that you get from tomato paste, you would have to be cooking
tomatoes for hours.
Add a third of cup to the frypan, no need to be precise with measuring, eyeballing it’s
fine.
You’ll also need two tins of chopped or crushed tomatoes.
Pour your tomatoes into the frypan and using the wooden spoon stir to combine.
This sauce now just needs to be simmered at a low heat.
For how long really has a huge impact on how good it will taste.
Minimum it needs to simmer for 30 minutes but ideally somewhere between 3-4 hours for
the best sauce.
A good trick with this is make a extra large batch and store it in the freezer for the
next time you want to make lasagna.
The second part of a lasagne is the cheese, you can use a mornay sauce which is basically
a white sauce with cheese melted in or the more traditional route is creamy ricotta.
In a small bowl add the ricotta cheese, about 250g or 9 ounces.
To the cheese crack in one medium sized egg.
The egg is going to give the ricotta more creaminess, take away some of that grittiness
you can sometimes taste while also binding it together.
When you slice the lasagna into pieces you don’t want ricotta cheese spilling out,
you want that perfect square.
We’re also going to grate in about a 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese for flavour.
Lastly add a pinch of salt and a pinch of nutmeg.
If you don’t already make sure to add a pinch of nutmeg to all of your cheese or white
sauces.
This includes mac and cheese, and it even works really well with mashed potato.
The nutmeg adds the perfect earthy nutty flavour.
Use a whisk to combine the ingredients together until you’re left with a creamy cheese mixture.
Cover and place in the fridge if you’re making this in advance or set to the side
to assemble the lasagna.
Now comes the fun part, assembling the lasagna.
There’s no hard and fast rules here, you can do as many or as little layers as you
would like, use whatever size baking dish you would like, shallow, small, high sided,
it’s up to you.
I’m using a 25 x 20cm or 10 x 8 inch baking dish and doing 3 layers.
To start add about half of a cup of the meat sauce to the base of your baking dish and
spread out evenly with the back of a spoon, this stops the lasagne sheets sticking.
Top with your lasagne sheets to completely cover the meat sauce, it doesn’t matter
too much if they overlap just which ever way they fit best.
I’m using instant lasagna sheets here meaning they don’t need to be pre cooked so I can
just add them straight in.
If you prefer a different type that you do precook they will work just as well.
Top the lasagne sheet with a third of the ricotta mixture and again spread out evenly
to cover the lasagne sheet with the back of a spoon.
We will use the remaining two thirds of ricotta for the next two layers.
Cover the ricotta with a quarter of the shredded mozzarella cheese.
I like to use mozzarella as well as ricotta in my lasagna as it adds that stretchy cheese
texture which with only ricotta I miss.
Finally top with about a cups worth of the meat sauce, spreading out evenly.
Follow this method twice more so you have 3 complete layers to your lasagne.
For the final layer add the lasagne sheets and cover with the remaining meat sauce.
Sprinkle the last of the mozzarella cheese over the lasagna and you’re ready to bake
it in the oven.
It’ll need about 40-50 minutes at 180 degrees celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
If the top of your lasagna is getting too brown just cover with foil for the remaining
time.
Cool for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Let me know if you would like to see a vegetarian lasagna recipe and don’t forget to subscribe
to my channel for new recipes each week.
Thank you for watching, I hope you enjoyed this recipe and I will see you in my next
video.