I always like cooking something great for Sunday dinner.  I usually plan all week what I am going to cook up.  Strangely this week I had no such plans.  There are so many great recipes on my must try list but I didn’t quite feel like any of them.

Out of the blue a friend asked me for the recipe for lasagne and I promptly supplied the goods.  After emailing the recipe off I started thinking about it.  Well more like obsessing over lasagne, I just wanted it now.  The more I thought the more I had to eat the meaty, cheesy brilliance.  I finally decided what to cook for Sunday dinner.

I stumbled into a lasagne recipe similar to this one a few years ago in an Italian recipe book I purchased my father for Christmas.  It was the week after Christmas and my parents felt guilty over their festive gluttony so naturally I decided to cook up a feast.  This recipe caught my attention because it had some minor variations from my standard offering.

The addition of some speck and spoonful of nutmeg to the meat ragout really transforms the flavour from an ordinary bolognaise.  Additionally the cheese is not added to the béchamel sauce it is layered in the final construction.  This gives really great results as the cheese melts into the meat mixture and holds it all together.

Everyone loved this lasagne and went in for seconds.  I decided to save my extras for lunch the next day.  So I found a Tupperware box and carefully packaged up my prized slice for later.

Being holidays I woke up late the next day just in time for lunch.  I went to the fridge and my lasagne was nowhere to be found.  I searched through everything and could not find it.  I was very disappointed.  I later found out my Dad stole it and took it to work for lunch where he ate it in front of envious onlookers.

Anyway to cut a long story short don’t let this out of your sight or someone may steal it.

Lasagne
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
Meat Sauce
500g Minced beef
100g Speck, chopped
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 Garlic clove, finely chopped or minced
1 tbsp Olive Oil
¼ tspn Ground nutmeg
½ cup White wine (optional)
400g Tomato passata
100g Mushrooms, sliced
1 tspn Italian dried herbs, use a mix or equal proportions of dried basil and oregano
White Sauce
2 tbsp               Butter
4 tbsp Plain flour
600 ml Milk
150g Mozzarella, sliced
75g Parmesan cheese, grated
1 packet Fresh lasagne sheets, approx 375g

Method
  1. Meat Sauce: Saute onion and garlic in oil in a frypan until softened over a medium heat.  Add minced meat and fry until meat breaks up into small lumps.  Pour in wine and cook until it has evaporated.  Lower heat and add tomato paste and nutmeg, stir to combine and fry for one minute.  Add tomatoes, mushrooms and herbs.  Simmer over a low heat for 30 minutes.
  2. White sauce: Heat milk in a saucepan to scalding point and set aside.  Melt butter in another saucepan and stir in flour.  Cook, stirring, until you have a smooth golden paste (known as a roux).  Gradually work in hot milk and stir until sauce thickens and is very smooth.  Continue stirring until sauce boils.  Cook for a further 10 minutes over low heat.  Take off heat and set aside.
  3. Cover bottom of ovenproof dish with meat sauce, and then cover with layers of lasagne noodles.  Spoon meat sauce over lasagne sheets and then place on slices of mozzarella, cover with white sauce and sprinkle on parmesan meat sauce and cheese sauce until all of the meat and cheese sauces are used up.  Finish with a cheese sauce layer on top.  Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top.
  4. Cook in a 180°C oven for 30 minutes.  Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
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