No Bake Lasagne Recipe
Ok this sounds really odd but this is my work around for those lasagne lovers who never have time to make it mid week. It is a lovely meat ragu with floating pieces of pasta and cheese on the top. My daughter said why don’t you call it Bolognese and I explained the ratio of mince to pasta is different! My son said why don’t you just layer everything up you have the mince and the pasta just make a bechamel and put it in the oven. Neither of them looked at the clock and saw we only walked in the door at 6pm and to produce a traditional lasagne I would need more time than I had. Their initial resistance was put to rest when they polished off their dinner.
- • 2 tablespoons olive oil
- • 450g lean beef mince
- • 2 onion, diced or popped into the food processor
- • 2 celery sticks, diced or popped into the food processor
- • 1 red or green pepper, diced or popped into the food processor
- • 2 carrots
- • 2 garlic cloves, minced
- • 2 Tablespoons tomato puree
- • 1 tin 400g chopped tomato
- • 2 cups chicken stock
- • ⅓ cup red wine
- • 2 tablespoons granulated stock or 1 vegetable stock cube
- • 1 teaspoon sugar
- • 2 tablespoons dried basil
- • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- • 2 whole bay leaves
- • 1 teaspoon salt
- • ½ teaspoon pepper
- • 10 uncooked lasagne noodles, broken into approx. 2 inch pieces
- • ½ cup double cream (optional)
- • Extra chicken stock to make the end consistency to your desire thickness, some people like thicker sauces some thinner sauces so ‘dilute’ the mince to your consistency
- • Garnish
- • Grated mozzarella cheese and or freshly finely grated Parmesan cheese and torn basil leaves
- Chop your vegetables, or if you have chosen to food process your vegetables, process them as small as you like. I process mine until it is almost a paste like consistency, only because my children and I don’t like chunk pieces of vegetables in our meat sauces.
- Add the olive oil to a large pot and heat on medium.
- Add the garlic and bay leaves fry to release the flavour, add in your chopped or food processed vegetables and soften, but don’t let the vegetables take colour.
- Add beef mince to the vegetable, stir and break down the mince into small pieces until the mince has browned.
- Drain off any excess fat.
- Add the wine and allow the alcohol to reduce for a minute, continue to stir.
- Add in the tomato paste and stir well, then add the chopped tomatoes, stock cube or granulated stock, sugar and spices.
- Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce to a simmer for as long as you have 20 minutes or 1 hour the longer it simmers the tastier it will be.
- Twenty minutes before you are ready to serve, break up your dried lasagne sheets and add them to the mince, stirring often as they can clump together.
- Discard bay leaf and if you have chosen to use cream stir it in.
- Add an extra 2 cups chicken stock to reach desired consistency, some people like a runnier sauce other a thicker sauce ‘dilute’ the meat sauce until it is the consistency you like.
- Sprinkle as much cheese as you like over each serving.
This would be great super bowl food serve with garlic bread on the side.
You can use fresh lasagne sheets, cook according to the timings on the packet and make sure your ragu is at the consistency you want, as the fresh sheets will not thicken your sauce like the dried sheets will.
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