My Super Easy, Never Fails, Lasagne Recipe!

Hello again honeys,
Today I made my hubby's favourite dinner and I thought I'd share it with you.  I know there are as many recipes for lasagne as there are cooks who make it, and so I can only share my own method, tweaked and refined over the past 15 years or so till I found the method that hubby likes best :)

Ingredients

450gm Minced Beef
1 small onion finely chopped
1 jar Bolognaise Sauce
1 390g carton of chopped tomatoes
1 pkt of lasagne sheets
1 jar Ragu (or other brand) lasagne (bechamel) sauce
Grated cheese to sprinkle over topping before baking

Optional

3 or 4 small mushrooms finely chopped
Roughly chopped vegetables of your choice, I added chopped celery, carrots, swede & turnip.
Couple of pinches of dried basil

Directions

1. Add minced beef & chopped onion to a pan.

2. Place the pan over a medium heat and stir occasionally until the mince has browned slightly. Add your chopped vegetables and mushrooms, if you want to add them, and continue to stir over a medium heat for a minute or two. 

3. When your mince, onion and vegetables are combined, add your carton (or a tin would do) of chopped tomatoes, and the jar of bolognaise sauce. Continue to stir over a medium heat until everything is warmed through.

4. Remove from the heat and add a pinch or two or dried basil. Stir through until combined.

5. Fetch a rectangular casserole dish or lasagne dish. Begin to assemble your lasagne by making a first layer of your beef mince mixture on the base of the casserole dish.

6. Place a layer of lasagne sheets on top of your beef mince mixture until covered.

7. Add a layer of minced beef mixture on top of the lasagne sheets. Repeat these layers until you have used all of the beef mince mixture, finishing with a final layer of lasagne sheets.

8. Pour the jar of lasagne sauce over the last layer of pasta sheets and spread with a spatula or a flat knife until it's spread evenly.

9. Complete your lasagne by sprinkling grated cheese on top.

10. Place into the oven, on the middle shelf, at 160C/320F for 45-50 minutes, until the cheese has lightly browned and you can insert a knife through to the bottom of the casserole very easily (ie: until lasagne sheets have cooked and are not "tough" this is the MOST important step, if the lasagne sheets are still tough or the knife doesn't slice very easily through turn the temperature right down to around 100C/(190/200F) (to prevent the cheese burning) and cook for a further 10-15 minutes)

11. When done, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing. This should easily serve 4-6 people. If you have any leftovers it freezes great too.  I usually make two lasagnes and slice the extra one up and place into tubs to freeze individual portions for later. Hubby can then microwave from the freezer when I'm on a late shift if he's hungry.

12. Slice, serve and enjoy! We had ours tonight with a lovely crispy green salad, but you can have it with potato wedges or even on its own for lunch :)  Hubby loves to take some to work with him for lunch (he re-heats for 2-3 minutes in the microwave.)

So, that's all there is to it honeys :) It's so easy to make and the fun part is changing it a little each time you make it until you find your own perfect method.  As I said above I added chopped mushrooms and roughly chopped vegetables because hubby likes it that way but leave them out if you'd rather. Why not experiment? add chopped peppers? Anything you like honeys because you're making it for you.  Enjoy!

Do you have a totally different lasagne recipe? Please share or leave a link in the comments section below, or even just say hello :) Occasionally we have a meat free version which I make using a combination of Philadelphia cream cheese & spinach which is delicious. Thank you for dropping by, I hope you're having a great week, sending hugs honeys xx