Lasagne is without a doubt my favourite meal, it always has been and it reminds me of a happy childhood and good times. In almost 25 years I’ve eaten a lot of lasagne’s, hundreds in fact, so I thought if I’m doing some cooking posts (which I do plan on doing over time) then where better to start?

I do like cooking, it’s a good release and the sense of achievement of bringing things together for people to enjoy is very rewarding. I’m not great cook by any means, I’m always learning (mostly from my father who enjoys learning himself, so it’s a good system) and enjoy putting theory into practice and last night, with the mince about to go out of date and having found the charger for the camera a couple of days ago I thought I’d share my method of making it with you.

Requirements

Below is what I have to make up this Lasagne:

Here we have:

• Minced Beef
• Cheddar Cheese
• Whole Onion (x1)
• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes
• Lasagne Sheets
• Knorr Ragu Sauce
• Knorr White Sauce
• Lasagne Dish
• Large Pan
• Small Pan
• Chopping Board
• Sharp Knife

The lasagne sheets aren’t what I would choose (Sainsburys own brand), but it’s all that was in the house, the same for the tomatoes, I would normally use ‘fresh’ Cherry Tomatoes as opposed to those from a can, again, it’s all that was in and it was around 10pm, so I would recommend getting better sheets and fresh tomatoes, but everything else is fine.

Preparation

Now wash your bloody hands. Health and hygiene are more important than anything!

Prepare your mushrooms, personally I like mine in halves or quarters as opposed to slices, for this I opted for quarters. These won’t be needed yet, but it saves you doing it later.
Slice one whole onion, removing the skin, slicing in half, then chopping into thin slices. A full, medium onion is all you’ll need for this.
Grate your cheese for the top of the lasagne now, it’s a pain in the arse and whilst the mince is cooking you don’t want to be going between stirring and grating. For this I prefer mild yellow cheddar, but white will do just as well, whichever you prefer, use that.

Wash your hands again!

Open the pack of mince, here I have 2 smaller ones, it makes no difference as it all goes into the same pan. Remember to remove the paper from the bottom of the mince, never nice throwing it in the pan and realising you’ve left it on!

Add some tomatoes into the pan, I spooned mine out of the tin, but if using something like cherry tomatoes, you can decide whether to cut them in half or add them whole – alternately, if you don’t like them, don’t add them; my personal opinion is that it doesn’t really make much of a difference.

Add the pan onto a medium-high heat hob, a little bit of oil and add the mince then add the onions.

Add a smaller pan onto another hob, add a knob of butter and once melted, add the mushrooms to cook for a few minutes, once done add those into the mince and onion mix.

Make sure the mince is browned, it must be cooked.

Once adequately browned add the full amount of Ragu in, I personally recommend Dolmio Ragu over Knorr. Dolmio is very easy to get from any major supermarket and is delicious too. Stir this around and let it cook inside the pan for a couple of minutes, whilst this is cooking, rub butter around the inside of your lasagne dish to add as a none-stick element to the dish.

Some people don’t do this, I do as it’s always better safe than sorry when it comes to getting it back out.

Cooking

Once your dish is all buttered up, carry the pan across to the dish and rest on a chopping board so that you don’t burn any surface you’re working on and if you have metal handles, use oven gloves or alternative, they DO get hot.

This is where you fill the lasagne dish up step by step in layers to your preference, mine is the simplest, mince, lasagne, sauce, mince, lasagne, sauce and then the cheese, like below:

Of course it’s up to you as to how much you fill each layer, I like it quite even, some people like to put a lot more mince on the bottom level than on the upper, some prefer 3 layers of mince.

Put it in your pre-heated oven at 180-190 degrees for 25-30 minutes, when the top is crispy and a knife falls effortlessley through the lasagne it is done. Remove from the oven, rest it on top of a chopping board for 10-20 minutes to settle.

Then serve up and enjoy your freshly cooked lasagne.

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