A Traditional Lasagne Recipe from Italy

Throw out the lasagne ready meal and treat the whole family to a gorgeous, traditional lasagne recipe, direct from Italy!
This is a fairly slow-cook recipe and takes a little over three hours to create, but it’s well worth the wait, promise. Your traditional lasagne should provide at least six servings and is perfect for a Saturday night in front of the TV with a big chunk of garlic bread.

What you’ll need

750g of lean steak mince
4 rashers of chopped smoked bacon
1 onion and 1 carrot finely chopped
2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
400ml of passata
A glass of red wine
50g butter
50g plain flower
600ml of whole milk
Parmesan
Enough lasagne sheets to cover your dish three times
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

How to cook it

• To begin, add a large glug of olive oil to a pan and fry the onion until soft, then add the carrot and bacon and cook for a further 5 minutes.
• Add the mince and cook until browned.
• Pour in the wine and passata and season with a touch of salt and pepper. Cover the pan and simmer for an hour or until the mixture is quite dry.
• Whilst your mixture is cooking, add some salted water to a pan and bring to the boil. Carefully blanch the pasta sheets, a few at a time, for 1 minute. Separate the sheets and allow to dry on some greaseproof paper.
• Now, to make your béchamel sauce, add the butter to a pan and gently whisk in the flour. Continue to stir and cook the sauce on a gentle heat for around 2 minutes. Then gradually add the milk whilst continuing to stir, bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the sauce is nice and thick.
• To create your masterpiece, add a third of the tomato and beef mixture to the bottom of a deep baking tray. Top with a layer of pasta and add some béchamel sauce and parmesan shavings. Repeat this two times, ensuring you save plenty of béchamel sauce and parmesan for the top layer!
• Pop your lasagne into a pre-heated oven at 200C and cook for about 30 to 40 minutes, you are just waiting for the lasagne to turn golden before removing.
• Allow to rest for a few minutes and then tuck in!

Try something different

If you are looking to mix things up a little, why not try adding some BBQ chicken instead of beef? All you need to do is marinate your chicken in a tangy BBQ sauce and then add to your tomato sauce in place of the minced beef.
Image courtesy of flickr user david55king