Lasagne

 

My secret to a delicious lasagne is something that would make Italian food purists turn in their graves.  Ssshh, don't tell everyone, but it's chorizo, or any other similar spicy sausage.  It adds such a lovely smoky flavour to the dish.  In fact I think I may have a chorizo addiction, I find it enhances pretty much any meal.  The one I use is actually not chorizo but a Hungarian spiced sausage that seems to be available at virtually all the Auckland farmers markets.
 As you can see from the photo, I like to make a HUGE lasagne!  We store it in the fridge once cooked and make it last for about four dinners.  Of course, you can just halve the amount of mince used and make one normal, sedate-sized lasagne.
My recipe depends on what I have in the pantry and fridge, I'll add variations you can make to the recipe.

Ingredients

1kg mince (either all beef, or mixture of 500g beef mince, plus pork, lamb, veal, venison etc mince)

1 chorizo (or similar) sausage

1 or 2 onions, thinly sliced or chopped

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 jar of tomato-based pasta sauce (any flavour)

1 tin chopped tomatoes

teaspoon dried oregano

1 tbsp tomato puree

 splash of red wine

salt and pepper

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

few drops tabasco sauce

(optional: finely diced celery, grated/chopped carrot, sweetcorn, frozen peas)

white sauce (see below)

fresh pasta sheets

grated cheese

Method

Put splash of oil in large pan with onions, garlic, chorizo and celery and/or carrot (if using).  When onion is soft and chorizo is cooked, add the mince and stir until cooked.  Mix in the tomato puree to the mince.Then add  the pasta sauce, chopped tomatoes, oregano, red wine, salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar and tabasco sauce.  Mix together and leave to simmer on stovetop for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally.  The longer you cook the sauce for the better it will be.  Let the sauce cool.

Get a large baking dish, and cover the bottom of the dish with the meat sauce. Cover this with a layer of white sauce, then a layer of lasagne sheets.  Repeat the layers until you have used up all the meat sauce. (I find it makes about three layers).  To finish, add another layer of white sauce on top of the lasagne sheets, and sprinkle with grated cheese and parmesan.

Preheat oven to 180C.  Bake for about 45 minutes, until top is golden and sauce is bubbling seductively over the edge of the dish.

--White sauce--

Ingredients

100g butter

5tbsp flour

4 cups milk

1 tsp salt

fine white pepper

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Method

Melt butter in a heavy pot over medium heat.  Add flour and stir over heat for a couple of minutes without letting it brown.  Gradually add milk, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened.  (I find it takes about 20 minutes).  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and simmer 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and if not using at once, cover with baking paper to  prevent a crust forming on top. Sauce thickens on cooling.  Reheat in the microwave and thin with extra milk. Sauce will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.