Meat Lasagna

During my school days, I had once stumbled upon this cuisine, in a restaurant, and its taste lingered in my head. Years later after I got married, with the recipes out there on the internet, I decided to try making it at home. I have to admit, it felt like a brain drain at first, the lasagna sheets and the cheese were not only easily available here in India, it was expensive too. But with years of experimenting, I found out that you can make this dish with other alternatives and it tastes just the same and great too 😄👍

INGREDIENTS:

Lasagne sheets/pasta
For White sauce (béchamel sauce)
Butter- 1 tbsp.
Flour - 1 tbsp.
Milk- 500ml
Pepper powder - 2tsp
Parsley- 1tsp
Nutmeg powder - pinch
Crushed Garlic - 1 clove
Mozzarella/ Cheddar cheese(grated) - 200gms or 100gms of both
Salt - to taste

For Meat sauce
Meat(minced) - 1/2 kg
Onion - 1 med size (chopped)
Garlic - 4 cloves (chopped)
Basil (dried or fresh) - 1tsp
Oregano (dried or fresh) - 1 tsp
Red pepper flakes - 1 tsp

Pepper powder- 1 tsp
Diced Tomato - 1(optional)
Tomato paste - 1/2 cup
Tomato sauce - 1 tbs
water - 1/2 cup

DIRECTIONS :

 For White sauce:

• Melt butter in a saucepan at low heat then add flour and keep stirring till a paste is formed.
• Slowly pour milk and stir
• Add crushed garlic, salt, parsley, powdered pepper, and nutmeg.
• Add half of the grated cheese. Keep stirring till the sauce thickens a bit, take off the stove and let it cool.  

For Meat sauce:

• Heat oil in a large pan.
• Add chopped Onion. Sauté till the onions brown a bit and add the chopped garlic. Sauté for a minute.
• Add diced tomatoes and sauté till the tomatoes become mushy.
• Add in the meat. Cook till the meat is done.
• Add the basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and salt
• Add tomato paste and tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of water and mix all together.
• Bring to simmer, cook for some more time and remove from heat. Set aside.

Layering of the Lasagna:

• Grease the casserole or baking dish with butter
• First layer, spread the meat sauce.
• Second layer, spread the lasagna sheets over the meat sauce and
• Third layer, spread the white sauce.
• Repeat the same process till the top layer is meat sauce and top it up with cheese.
• Bake this dish for 20 mins in a preheated oven of 190 degrees Celsius.

Some Tips:

• While making the sauces, if it becomes thick then add little warm water and stir in medium heat till it comes to a boil and switch off the flame.
• You can increase or decrease the ingredients like garlic, spices, and herbs according to your taste buds.
• Tomato in this recipe is optional, alternatively, you can add more of the tomato paste or tomato puree.
• You can use the preboiled lasagna sheet, if available(according to the instructions on the packaging), or use boiled and drained pasta in place of the lasagna sheets. Since the sheets are not easily available here I use boiled penne pasta most of the time.