Lasagne Night

For a long time now our family have made a tradition that we all now call 

                                                                   ''Lasagne Night''.

It is the one meal we all enjoy and never have left overs from and with a family with 7 children and 2 adults, you may know yourself it is hard to please everyone at the same time as well as getting those essential vegetables into the small ones . 

Ingredients:-

White sauce-

• ½ a small onion
• 1 bay leaf.
•  500ml semi-skimmed milk
•  a sprig of fresh parsley
•  35g butter
•  45g plain flour
• 70g Parmesan cheese
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bolognaise-

•  2 medium onions
•  3 cloves of garlic
• 200g button mushrooms
•  2 courgettes
• 1 leek
•  olive oil
•  2 heaped teaspoons dried oregano
• 700g good-quality lean minced beef
• 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
•  sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
•  a small amount of fresh basil

Optional for topping- 

• Cheese
• Cherry tomatoes

Directions:-   

Making the bolognaise sauce-

• Peel and finely chop the onions, garlic, courgettes, mushrooms and leek .
  
• Place a large saucepan on a medium to high heat.
  
• Add 2 small teaspoons of olive oil,mince , onion and the oregano and cook and stir until the mince is lightly golden .
• Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the leeks, mushrooms and courgettes to the pan .
• Stir occasionally for around 15 minutes, or until softened , then stir in the tinned tomatoes.
  
• Use a garlic grinder then stir the garlic into the large saucepan with the other ingredients.

Making the white sauce-

• Peel and slice half an onion .
• Add the onion, milk, parsley and black peppercorns and bay leaf  to a pan on a medium heat and gently bring to the boil. 
• Strain the milk through a sieve, discarding anything left behind.
  
• Melt the butter in another pan on a medium-low heat.
•  Mix in the flour .
• Start adding the strained milk slowely.
  
• Once  you have a smooth white sauce, bring the whole lot to the boil then simmer for a couple of minutes.
• Take off the heat and finely grate in the Parmesan cheese .
•  Mix well then season with a pinch of salt and pepper.
  

Making the lasagne -

• Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5 
  
•  Remove the Bolognese sauce from the heat, then tear and stir in any larger basil leaves
  
•  season with a little more salt and pepper if you think it needs it
  
• Spoon half of your Bolognese sauce into the bottom of an ovenproof dish .
  
• Layer the lasagne sheets and the other half of your Bolognese sauce.
  
• Layer with more lasagne sheets then top with the white sauce ensuring the sheets are covered.
• Cover with foil, place in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes
  
• Remove the foil and cook for a further 20 minutes until the lasagne is bubbling and looking golden. 
  

We love cheese in our family so therefore we add cheese and chopped cherry tomatoes on the top but this is optional .

For our side dishes we boil corn cobbettes in a pan and then make a nice crunchy salad and some chips .

Salad recipe-

For the dressing we love an Italian dressing- 

• Soak 2 tablespoons minced red onion in cold water, 15 minutes; drain. 
• Pile 1/2 garlic clove, 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, 1 teaspoon dried oregano and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt on aboard. 
• chop and mash into a paste. Whisk with 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar and the onion. Gradually whisk in 1/2 cup olive oil.
  

Salad-

• Chop celery, cherry tomatoes, spring onion, green pepper, red pepper, cucumber all around the same size and add it to fresh lettuce.
• Drizzle the Italian dressing over the salad .

Then all you need to do is serve and enjoy.

What ingredients do you use , I love my cheese topping melted and crisp, whats your favourite topping for a lasagne.