This post is brought to you by Woolworths
This recipe is pretty special because it’s the first dish that came out of my very special new oven. So we better start with a picture of the oven before we get stuck into the recipe. She’s so pretty that she might even need a name.
Whenever I make lasagne, and I mean every time I think of my mum. I was in high school and it was mothers day one year and my dad thought he’d buy her a huuuuuge lasagne dish to replace the old one which had exploded in the oven. He thought it was a great present, my mum was a little offended because she probably thought she was more than chief lasagne maker in the house and was probably thinking something more for herself than the whole family.
Lasagne is one of those dishes that everyone eats, the kids always ask for and which requires a few pots and pans and an oven dish to clean afterwards too. And it takes a bit of time to get it all made up but always worth it. And here is how I do lasagne, you can leave things out like the bacon or zucchini, use gluten free lasagne sheets if you like but just don’t skimp on the cheese on top. Got to have lots of cheese on top. All of the products I used are Woolworths Select or Macro and the quality was fabulous.
And that my lovely readers was the first dish and the first lasagne out of my new kitchen! Quite a few of us had seconds so there is one lonely piece of lasagne in the fridge for someone’s lunch or dinner tomorrow. And I know there are more dishes than usual to wash up and I need to devote a good bit of time to making lasagne but it’s always worth it.
What’s your secret ingredient that makes your lasagne a winner? Love to hear……………………
- 1 onion
- 2 zucchinis
- 3 rashers Woolworths Select rindless bacon
- 500g Macro beef mince
- 800g Woolworths Select Diced Tomatoes
- wine (optional)
- Fresh basil leaves
- Salt, pepper,tomato sauce
- Woolworths Select Lasagne Sheets
- 1½ cups Woolworths Select Shredded Tasty
- 500mls Woolworths Select skim milk (I use skim because that's what I drink but whatever milk you like)
- 50g butter
- 50g flour (I used gluten free but whatever you have in the pantry)
- We are going to finely chop the onion, zucchini and bacon. I do this in the thermomix by chopping into large pieces and pressing turbo 1 or 2 times. You can just use a knife for the onion and bacon and grate the zucchini.
- Heat oil in a heavy based saucepan and saute the onion, zucchini and bacon for a few minutes. Add a good bit of salt for the onion and zucchini.
- Add in the beef and mix with a spoon to break it up. Brown the meat by cooking for about 5 minutes or so and stir a few times.
- I like to add a splosh of wine but it's totally optional, the alcohol cooks off (I say this because I've received a few comments on instagram about using wine in my cooking)
- Tip in the can of tomatoes and bring to the boil. I add some basil now to cook in the sauce and then a bit more later on. Just a handful of leaves will do. And I like a good bit squirt of tomato sauce. Don't ask, just love it.
- So I like to have it cooking for about 20=25 minutes or so without a lid to let the liquid cook off. I also added a tsp of flour when I was at the end of the cooking time just to thicken up the sauce a little.
- Now while your bolagnese is cooking you are going to get that white sauce going. I now do white sauce in the thermomix so just the butter, flour, milk and salt for 7 minutes, 100 degrees and speed 4.
- Old school way is melt the butter in a small saucepan and just before it all melts stir in the flour and bring that to the boil. Just as it starts to bubble whisk in the milk. Don't worry if you've got lumps at first just keep whisking the mixture.
- Return to the heat and gently bring to the boil, the sauce is thickening so keep stirring it. Season and take it off the heat when you've got the right nice thick consistency. Like a nice thick custard is how I like it.
- Add in a dash of cheese and whisk together, season and set aside.
- Now the fun part. Grab a big lasagne dish and spread a few tablespoons of meat over the bottom. Top with lasagne sheets, do another layer of meat and lasagne sheets, now spread half of the white sauce over the sheet, top with another sheet, do another meat layer then top with lasagne sheets, the rest of the white sauce and loads and loads of grated cheese.
- Pop in the oven....now in the old oven it would take about 45 minutes to cook but the new oven had it done in about 25-30 minutes. You want a preheated 180 degree oven (a bit higher if it's not fan forced).
- Delicious.
I notice you make your lasagne the way I do mine -in the thermomix. has to be the best lasagne ever and doesn’t Madame thermo make it so easy? Of course it helps to have an awesome oven too!
Trish I would buy the thermomix just for the white sauce!!!!!!!!! so easy and never fails:)
Yum. We haven’t had lasagne in ages!
My secret ingredient is a layer of sliced boiled egg in with the middle white sauce layer. It’s so yummy! Adds that bit of extra protein too.
I also like to add lots of nutmeg and pepper to my white sauce
wow that is the first time I have heard of boiled egg! might have to try it!!!!
I think Nigella does one with boiled eggs (and possibly ham as well). Your lasagne looks very yummy. No wonder the children are smiling.
Yum! I don’t usually use basil so I’ll give that a try now! Love those blue jars above the oven too!
oh thank you! retro daddy didn’t like them so much
Several cans of tinned chopped tomatoes are essential. Some on bottom of dish and more in every layer that goes into the lasagne. Don’t skimp.
DIL is the lasagne queen in my family. Anything and everything goes into it. Leftover roast vegetables are great lightly broken with a fork. Once son and I made some when she was out. Mid winter and she came home frozen and starving. Declared our lasagne to be the best ever and just what went into it. We listed all the stuff from fridge and she smiled knowingly. When we got to the pate which needed using and the gorgonzola she was horrified. However she stuck to her comment about it being the best.
You really don’t need a recipe for lasagne, just a bit of knowledge about how foods will combine in flavour.
pate and gorgonzola – that’s a round the world lasagne dish! what a story to share with the family:) love it
Corrie, I don’t understand your beautiful stove LOL—what are those big lid like things sticking up???? How do they work?
oh they are the hob covers. they are like the traditional hob covers on say a wood or gas cooker that is on around the clock to keep the heat in. Mine doesn’t run like that but they do protect the induction cooktop and look pretty too:)
Hi Corrie,
Love your lasagne recipe.
If i don’t have any wine handy worcestershire sauce makes a great substitute because it still gives the sauce a bit of bite and depth of flavour.
mmmm good old worcestershire (which is hard to spell!) I’ve been known to even put it in a stir fry when I’m running low on things. love that idea in lasagne, thank you:)
My special ingredient is time
Time for the meat sauce to simmer away until it is lovely and thick (unctuous as Maggie Beer would say) and then time to wait for the flavours to really develop. It’s a 2 day affair but so worth it
ohhhhh I need some of that time! you are right, bolagnese tastes so good after more time on the oven or the next day. Yum, sounds delicious
Terrific recipe. Just wondering how does the thermoix (?) help when cooking? Is it… Natural? Just wondering as I have a disabilty and wondering if it might help me cook as I find it hard standing. Love that you can print out the recipes. Lots of work. Well done
Ingrid ( maisonmummy)
oh yes it would be fabulous for you! it actually does a great bolagnese too. Because it does so much of the stirring for you it would help you out. See if you can have a demo to see how it works because then you are hooked and see how it works. I just love mine and great for allowing me to do other things with the kids
Corrie:)
I add kidney beans to my lasagne. The kids are used to this now, since I have been doing this from before they were born. However my youngest is now taking offence to kidney beans. So I tell her to squash them with a fork before eating!
oh wow! that’s a new one for me. Lentils yes but kidney beans is a new one. sounds good!
I don’t know if your kids like mushrooms (only one of mine does) but this lasagne is amazingly good.
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/10/mushroom-lasagna/
ohhhhh that looks good! love her blog actually! must try it and see if the kids will eat it:)
I’m with them, I add a big bag of mushrooms with one of the big tins of kidney beans (rinsed) – process them a bit in the food processor to hide them a bit. It doubles the recipe, adds extra goodness too! I always make two or three at a time and freeze two (why waste all of that lasagne making effort!)
I add a can of tomato soup with the canned tomatoes – delicious!!
You had me at zucchini and bacon. Those two are my go to ingredients in almost any dish involving mince these days. I’m on the FODMAPs diet, so this works really well for me with the gluten free pasta. Now to convince my boy that we need a thermomix. . . .
or do what I did? buy it, feel so guilty, wait till it arrives and then cook him a fabulous meal served up with lots of wine and then when he realises how you cooked the meal he is impressed! worked here:)
I’m hungry now!!! Looks so yummy! I love lasagne. It does take a while but it’s sooo good. I wish I had an easier way to make the bechamel though (without buying a thermomix) lol. Oven looks terrific Corrie!
yep bechamel does take a bit of time and a whisk but always worth it! the thermomix does make light work of it though:)
I have 4 lasagne connoisseurs in my house, they would eat it every day if they had the choice(and one of them is my hubby). I might try this recipe for a change, it sounds and looks delicious.
haha love how your hubby loves it too, it’s definitely hearty and filling which keeps the menfolk happy:)
Corrie I made this for dinner tonight, it was delicious, the leftovers have been cut up and put into Tupperware sandwich keepers for our daughter to take to work over the next few days. We had to leave the onion out because they don’t agree with her but I added carrot chopped finely and used gluten free pasta. Thanks for a great meal idea.
Of course you need to name your stove – Jesse the Esse!
Oh Corrie you must name your new oven! That photo with the kids lined up with their meals, they all look so bright in the new kitchen.
Hi Corrie, your new oven looks amazing! I make a double batch of spag bol and the next night make it into a yummy lasagne! So much easier and quicker. I add mushrooms, zucchini and carrot to my meat mix and sometimes a handful or red lentils to bulk it out too
You can never have too many lasagne recipes I say and I have to try this one. I love that you have sneaked in some veges too. The secret ingredient in my sauce is Parmesan Cheese. Everyone seems to love it. I recently tried making the sauce in the microwave the other day and to my surprise it was fabulous!
You can make the white sauce dairy and gluten free. We use the recipe in Friendly Food.
My kids love a can of tomato soup in the meat sauce – makes it a little sweet to taste
How do you cook the macro organic lasange sheets. They don’t mention anything about boiling them. Please help? Thanks.
it cooks while the dish is cooking, they are instant lasagne sheets:)