Lasagne Love Letter

photo of a golden brown cooked lasagne in an oven dish with salad in the background

Brown off 500g beef mince and 500g pork mince in a large saucepan over a high heat. Into this same pan add 1 peeled brown onion and 1 large carrot both grated. You won’t find me peeling most vegetables; I just give them a good scrub. Peeling just creates more waste to dispose of and besides which my mother convinced me that all the goodness was just below the skin and who am I to disagree with my mother.

Make a well in the centre of the ingredients as best you can and deglaze the base of the pan with 2 tablespoons of red wine or balsamic vinegar – not the fancy-pants stuff, just your everyday vinegar. Wine works too if you have some open or need an excuse to open a bottle. It’s all about adding a backbone to the ragu.

Now is the time to add your herbs and extra seasoning. I like dried oregano, garlic, and onion powder at a minimum. If I have plenty of fresh parsley/sage/thyme growing in the garden I’ll pick some and pop that in too. I also add minced anchovies and honestly no one has ever noticed they’re in there but you follow your heart here. A friend’s son lets his wild side go by adding soy sauce, miso, fish sauce and more. I’m here for all this kind of behaviour. Too many rules in cooking as it is.

This next bit might seem odd but go with me on this, add half a cup of milk. I read about this in a Marcella Hazan recipe. Apparently adding milk before adding the tomatoes tempers any undue acidity. I did it once when cooking a pork ragu and loved the result so now it is a standard play.

Add 170g tomato paste and half a 800g tin of chopped tomatoes. I’m sure you have a preferred brand; I do too. Alright, alright stop asking, it’s Mutti. An Italian chef I worked with was loyal to Mutti. I am now too.

Generally I’ll also sprinkle in a small handful of puy lentils at this stage to stretch out the protein because by the time it’s all cooked down, no one can tell the difference between the mince and the lentils.

Let the pan simmer away on a back hotplate for several hours. 4-5 hours would be ideal but if you’ve only got 2 hours then that’ll do too. If I’m organised enough, I’ll do the whole thing in a slow cooker and let it simmer away overnight.

Onto the bechamel. Starting with a simple roux, you melt a quantity of fat – in this case 50g butter – and stir an equal quantity (50g) of plain white flour into it. Cook it for a minute or two, stirring constantly over a medium heat so the starch cooks out. To incorporate the 4 cups of milk, start by adding a few spoonfuls at a time whisking so you don’t end up with lumps. Add a little more at a time, whisking all the while until it’s all incorporated. If you heat the milk up before adding it, you won’t risk it going lumpy but I hate dirtying extra dishes.

So much about cooking and tasting is figuring out where your platonic ideal lies. I find that I need to season my bechamel with saltfreshly ground white pepper and Dijon mustard, though white miso and vegetable stock powder work too. Otherwise, it tastes too sweet to me. Not actually sugar sweet but not the neutral base I want it to be.

I’ve already declared my dairy leanings so this is where I load up the bechamel with lots of freshly grated cheese; I recommend 2 cups in total. A combination of pecorino, some kind of cheddar style and a mozzarella is perfect. Turn down the heat on your sauce and gradually drop in the grated cheese, a handful at a time. Stir until delightfully smooth then turn off and put the pan to one side.

Generally, I’ll make the bechamel and the ragu ahead of time and assemble the whole thing whilst it’s cold. You choose what suits you. Chunking the workload is more achievable for me most days but if I’m in the mood, I can get it done in a day.

Confession time – I’ve never once boiled my dried pasta sheets before using. That extra step seems too much like hard work. Maybe one day, I’ll do it and change my mind but until then you’re let off the hook. I use 500g dried lasagne sheets for this quantity of ragu and bechamel.

Whether or not you end up with béchamel or ragu or even pasta sheets leftover will depend on the size of your dish and how thick you make your layers. It matters not as the dried pasta can go into the pantry and the ragu and béchamel can hang out in your freezer until you find another use for them. The ragu would make a tasty topping on baked potato or sweet potato or encased in pastry. The béchamel is a shortcut to cauliflower cheese, mac & cheese and so on. Both can work in a baked pasta (pasta al forno).

Stir the second half of the tinned tomatoes into the ragu and ladle a small amount of this into the base of your chosen dish. I favour ceramic over metal so it looks better on the table but either works. I then place a layer of pasta sheets butted up against each other so it achieves a solid coverage. Then I apply a layer of ragu followed by a sprinkle of extra grated cheese and dollops of bechamel. The next pasta layer is laid at 90 degrees to the first so there’s no repeated seam throughout the lasagne. Am I overthinking this?

I repeat these layers almost to the top of the baking dish. I stop a couple of centimetres short so when it’s baking I make less (or hopefully no) mess in the oven. For the final layer, spoon enough bechamel across the pasta (no ragu) so it covers it all completely but in a thin layer. Add blobs of mozzarella and some fresh basil leaves (or anoint with dried oregano if you’ve no basil) for an attractive finish.

Store in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze if that suits you better. I generally cook it – 180 degrees for 40 minutes will do it – then cool it, portion it and freeze it.

Yes, it’s a project but then I never promised otherwise.

photo of a slice of lasagne with some salad on the side

More blogs

Making a meal for the most important person

Making a meal for the most important person

Eating solo means eating however I like and that includes licking the plate. I’ve never been one for breakfast in the morning, yet I’ll happily tuck into bacon and eggs at 3 p.m. And let’s be real—who hasn’t eaten cereal for dinner?

Good Enough Meals

Good Enough Meals

Even after years in the food industry, I sometimes lose my mojo. What I have learned is to ditch the judgement—internal or external—and embrace food as something fluid, adaptable, and, above all, satisfying.

Easy Entertaining

Easy Entertaining

After years in hospitality and catering, these are my best tips for helping everything run smooth, whatever the occasion. And most importantly, be present and enjoy yourself. It’s supposed to be fun after all.

FREE RANGING FOODIE

© Copyright Amanda Kennedy 2025