Laiji's Creative Corner: Italian Lasagne

My version

Lasagna is a flat pasta made with semolina and eggs, thus, it has a tint of yellow unlike other pastas. You can also find egg free lasagna sheets, but, I wouldn't recommend it. When you search for lasagna in supermarkets you may also come across green lasagna, which is because of the spinach that's blended into it. For those new to Lasagne - It is an Italian dish that's made by layering lasagna sheets, Bolognese sauce and lots of cheese. Some people also use white sauce. Here I'm making my version of simple lasagne without the white sauce.

Ingredients :

Minced meat (of your choice - you can also mix 2 or 3 different meats)	-	1 cup
Olive oil	-	As required
Butter	-	1 tablespoon
Garlic (finely chopped)	-	2-3 cloves
White Onion (finely chopped)	-	1 no.
Carrots (finely chopped or grated)	-	2 nos.
Celery (finely chopped or grated)	-	1 medium stem
Freshly crushed black pepper	-	As required
Dried Oregano	-	1 teaspoon
Tomatoes *	-	2 large or 1 can
Tomato puree	-	1/2 cup
Worcestershire sauce	-	1 tablespoon
Grape juice**	-	3/4 cup
Fresh Basil	-	2-3 leaves
Fresh Parsley (finely chopped)	-	A handful
Milk	-	1/2 cup
Salt	-	to taste
Parmigiano-Reggiano***	-	As required
Grated Parmesan cheese	-	As required
Shredded Mozzarella	-	As required
Lasagna sheets	-	pick a pack, you won't need the whole of it though.

*You can use Italian Style Crushed tomatoes available in cans, or go the fresh way by literally cooking fresh tomatoes until it softens and add a dash of olive oil, basil and salt and simmer until the tomatoes loses its raw flavour. You can seed and skin the tomatoes or just use it the way it is. I'm too lazy to seed and skin.

**Grape juice is just a substitution to red wine. Well, I have no clue as to how red wine tastes, but, I suppose it should be something somewhere close to red grape juice. ;)

***For that real Italian touch, please hunt for Parmigiano-Reggiano. No other substitutes work as good.

Preparation Method :

For the sauce -

In a skillet melt the butter and half the olive oil.

Throw in the crushed garlic and finely chopped onion. Allow the onions to sweat.

Finely chop or grate carrots and celery. Add the carrots and celery to the onions.

Add the crushed black pepper and the dried oregano.

Once the water in the veggies have all evaporated add some salt and the minced meat. and sauté and combine the meat and veggies together and cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the tomatoes. In a saucepan, heat some olive oil and saute the tomato puree for 2 minutes on medium heat and add that to the meat and veggies.

Drizzle in the Worcestershire sauce and grape juice.

Combine everything and close with lid and simmer on low flame until the oil clears on top.

Add the milk and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add the chopped parsley.

Now for the layering -

Use an oven proof casserole dish. I've used a 2.5 litres dish and that makes quite a generous serving. Grease the dish well with some olive oil. And then spread out a thin layer of Bolognese sauce.

Top that with the lasagna sheets, each slightly overlapping the other. Make sure you buy no-boil lasagna sheets. The pre-boil lasagna is time consuming.

Garnish with all the three cheeses.

Repeat the steps again, with the lasagna sheets, then the Bolognese sauce and then the cheese. Layer with a minimum of 3 layers and a maximum of 5 layers of sheets. Finally, Garnish the top with a generous amount of cheese and then drizzle some olive oil. Sprinkle some salt and pepper and some chopped parsley on top.