Brigham, from Bunnythorpe...
Lasagne, My Way. (Or My Better-Than- Mcdonald’S- Flippin-Nice-As- Torturously- Decadent Lasagne)
OK, that’s what my six kids tell me. If they have a choice between eating out at McDonald’s and eating my lasagne—My Lasagne wins every time. It’s been a whanau favourite for years and is versatile where you can make variations with the rich and juicy sauce for other imaginative meals.
Early on in our marriage when we were students and even the cost of instant spaghetti sauces (you know, Domnio’s and the others) was getting to much, I thought, “really it can’t be that hard to make one myself and how I like it”. And so it was born, maybe a fluke, but none the less a sure winner at any family functions and when friends are over. It is so good, in our house it can cause fights but it does motivate the kids get up early the next morning to see who gets the left over’s first. This is where a lock on the fridge comes in handy.
What’s great about this is that it’s so easy it’s scary (I’m a bloke and even I can do it) and you can tutu (that means experiment) with the ingredients. OK, probably not the healthiest main meal, but tell me one thing you have had that was healthy and tasty at the same time, it’s a bit like getting a guy to multitask—you just can’t do it (mind you I can watch TV and use the remote at the same time).
This is great with any or all of the following: frozen corn (cook it of course), crusty bread, garlic bread and a leafy green salad (to help ease the guilt of it being so tasty). We like Greek salad with yummy feta cheese and black olives. Mmmmmm, I think I have put on weight thinking about it!
Ingredients
- For the Meat Sauce:
- 2 splashes of cooking oil
- 1 Kilo mince beef
- 6 to 8 cloves of fresh garlic (crushed or chopped and not the stuff you get in a jar!)
- 1 big diced onion
- 2 to 3 Beef Oxo cubes, crushed to powder
- 4 to 5 tablespoons of Greggs dried mixed herbs
- ¼ Cup of balsamic vinegar (or malt vinegar will work too)
- ½ Cup to 1 cup of brown sugar
- 4 to 6 Tablespoons of Whitlocks Worcester Sauce (not Lea & Perrins Worchester Sauce, you’ll ruin it!)
- 4 tins of Budget chopped tomatoes
- ½ cup of tomato paste
- Salt to taste (about 2 teaspoons) and pepper
- For the White Sauce:
- 200 Grams of butter
- ½ cup flour (or there abouts)
- 1 cup grated tasty cheese for the white sauce and then another 2 cups to sprinkle over the top before it goes in the oven.
- 1 chicken Oxo cube crushed to powder
- 3 cups of milk
- The Pasta:
- 2 to 3 packets of San Remo Large Instant lasagne sheets (this will depend on how many layers you want and the size of your lasagne dish. You may not use it all, but keep it for next time you have it).
- Other stuff:
- A deep roasting dish, like how your Mum use to have or whatever you have that will fit all of this in (about 40cm x 20cm deep dish)
- A decent sized pot to cook the meat sauce in
- A bowl to put the cooked mince in (you’ll understand later)
- Another pot to make the white sauce
- Some of your favourite cooking music and
- An imagination to pretend you are one of the following: Hudson n Hall’s; Jamie Oliver; or just yourself, to talk to an imaginary audience (either out loud or in your head, it doesn’t matter) about what you are doing.
- And yes, you’ll need an oven and a stove top, and I other stuff (knives, spoons, etc.)
Directions
- Turn on your oven to a medium heat (180 degrees approximately)
- On the stove top, in the descent sized pot, once at a medium heat, add the oil and brown the mince. Best to do this in batches rather than all together so you are not boiling the mince, more like frying it.
- Once that’s done, put the mince in the bowl, then in the same pot, add another splash of oil then the diced onions and crushed garlic. Cook/fry until they look cooked then add back the mince.
- Put the beef Oxo cubes in and then give it a stir, still on the heat.
- Now take it off the heat and add the following: mixed herbs; balsamic vinegar; brown sugar, Worcester sauce; and the tins of tomatoes. Back on the heat, then stir it up, little darling, stir it up (you can see what I like to listen to).
- Let it cook and simmer for a bit while you now focus on the white sauce. But don’t forget to stir it every now and then.
- White Sauce
- Very, very important: you must always stir a white sauce. I like to use a whisk.
- On a medium heat, in the other pot, add your butter. Once melted, add your flour and chicken oxo cube and stir it together.
- Add about half a cup to a cup of milk and stir it some more.
- Add the cup of cheese and the rest of the milk and stir.
- Stir. Turn the heat down a little.
- Stir.
- Stir.
- Otherwise, it’ll go lumpy.
- Let it thicken and remove the pot off the heat.
- Now back to the Meat sauce.
- With a teaspoon, dip it in to the sauce and taste it. And then ponder... is it tasty enough, is it sweet enough, does it have the ‘kick’ of the Worcester sauce?
- Now add the tomato paste and stir and add the salt. The salt will make it slightly richer in flavour. Add pepper, if you want.
- Assembly
- You are going to make about 3 layers of meat for this so somehow work out what about a third of your meat sauce is and put it in the lasagne dish.
- Add a layer of the Instant lasagne sheets (don’t worry, they’ll get cooked in the oven).
- Pour another third of the meat sauce over top.
- Then another layer of Instant lasagne sheets
- Pour the remaining meat sauce over.
- Then one more layer of Instant lasagne sheets
- Pour the white sauce over the top and spread it out evenly and then sprinkle the other 2 cups of cheese over the top.
- Put it in the oven and let it cook for about 40 minutes.
- To test if it is ready, get a skewer (or something else you can poke it with) and if it pokes easily through the lasagne pasta layers, it’s done.
- Take it out of the oven and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes and keep an eye on it because all the kids will start to have a nose around to see if it’s ready and will pick at the topping as soon as you aren’t looking.
- Get someone else to make the salad!
- At the table, it is like a bit of a ceremony cutting this up and it is about the only time everyone in the house is silent and salivating—making it even more blissful.
| Serves | Cooking Time | Prep Time |
|---|---|---|
| 8 to 16 people | 40 to 60 Minutes | 40 minutes |
Comments
Loweez
Can you please break that down a bit, we'd be eating that for a month......Lois and Jack
Enufsenuf
Fantastic so great to see cooking for the larger family. Thankyou for this tasty recipe it will be used by our large family asap.
Mel
This meal could feed my family for a month, lol, just what I like :)
Mince dishes are my favourite as they are great on a budget.
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Shebz
Funny as mate!! And as sampler regularly of this great meal i can attest to the tastiness of if, good on you for finally giving me the recipe .....lol.