Leftovers for Lunch: Lasagne

Lasagne is a Sunday night staple in my house. It's oozy, creamy, tomatoey, cheesiness is exactly what I need to prepare me for another week in the office: comforting and nourishing at the same time.

As a result, lunch on Monday is always a slice of the leftover lasagne from the night before.

Lasagne can require quite a bit of time, not to mention a lot of attention, and with a mile-high pile of ironing to do for work, you might be easily put off making a lasagne from scratch. But it doesn't have to be a long and labourious process, over the years I've perfected my own recipe, which is really tasty, not too unhealthy, and doesn't take long too boot

Despite its relative speediness, this lasagne recipe is completely home-made, and involves no "cheat" ingredients whatsoever. Here it is:

Lasagne (pronto)
Serves 4 (or 2 dinners + 2 lunches)

FOR THE MEAT SAUCE
1tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
500g minced beef
2 cloves garlic, mashed with a pinch of salt
1tsp dried chilli powder
400g tin chopped tomatoes
200ml water
1 beef stock cube
1tbsp oregano (or basil, italian seasoning or similar)
1tbsp tomato puree
pinch salt, to season
black pepper, to season

FOR THE WHITE SAUCE
50g plain flour
50g butter (or margarine)
1 pint milk

Lasagne sheets
Cheddar cheese or mozzarella, to top

Prep: Preheat oven to 190 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pan. Add the onions and fry over a gentle heat until softened and glassy (around 5 minutes). Add the garlic and chilli and fry for a further minute.

Turn up the heat to high, and add the minced beef to the pan. Fry until all the meat has browned.

Add the tomatoes, water, stock cube, oregano, tomato puree, salt and pepper to the pan, and simmer over a medium heat until the tomatoes start to dissolve.

While the meat sauce is simmering, we can make a start on the white sauce. Melt the butter in a pan (make sure the pan is big enough to hold 1pint of milk) over a low heat. Take the pan off the heat then add the flour and stir to make a paste (called a "roux"). Put the pan back over the heat and fry the roux for 1 minute or so. Remove the roux from the pan and place it in the fridge for 5 minutes or so to chill.

After 5 minutes, but the roux back in the same pan, and gradually start adding half of the milk, bit by bit, while stirring continuously with a whisk. The idea here is to get rid of all the lumps! Now add the rest of the milk, and put the pan back on the hob over a medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring regularly. After about 5-10 minutes the sauce will be lovely and thick. Season with salt and pepper.

This whole process takes roughly 20 minutes.

Now that your white sauce and meat sauce are both done, you can start layering them up a lasagne dish. I layer mine up like this:

*1/2 meat sauce, spread evenly
*layer of lasagne sheets
*1/2 white sauce, spread evenly
*remaining meat sauce
*layer of lasagne sheets
*remaining white sauce

Finally, cover the top with some slices of cheese, and bung in the oven for 20 minutes. Go and have a sit down!


One of my favourite things about this lasagne, is that it's so much yummier the next day after all the flavours have developed!