World's Best Lasagna
Servings 12 servings
Ingredients
Meat Sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 carrot diced
- 700 grams ground beef
- 300 grams german or italian sausage without casing, or ground pork instead
- 1 jar Tomato pasta sauce 650ml
- 1 can tomatoes with liquid diced or canned 500mlish
- 1/2 can tomato paste 150ml
- 1 cube beef bouillon
- 1 tsp basil
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- salt and pepper
White Cheese Sauce (Bechamel)
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup flour all purpose is fine
- 3 1/2 cups Milk
- 1 cup parmesan fresh or canned
Lasagna
- 12 strips lasagna fresh or dry. If using sheets you will need 4
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1 container ricotta cheese This is optional if you can't find it, but it is good!
- 2 tbsp parsley dried/fresh chopped
Instructions
Meat Sauce
- If you are using sausages, remove the pork innards from the casing. Thaw beef if required.
- Hit oil in large pot on medium heat. Add in carrot and onion and allow to soften about 10 minutes. Add in garlic and cook for about a minute.
- Add beef and pork mixture. Break this up with a spoon. Cook until it is browned.
- Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid, jar of pasta sauce, tomato paste, crushed beef bouillon, basil and oregano. The size of these jars is really your preference. If you like a more tomatoey taste feel free to add larger sizes or smaller etc.
- Mix well. Bring to simmer.
- Add sugar, salt and pepper as needed to taste.
- Cover, stir occasionally and cook for at least 20-30 minutes. Sauce should thicken.
Parmesan White Sauce
- In large pot, melt butter over medium heat.
- Remove from stove, add in flour and wisk for about 1 minute. Make sure it is well blended.
- Return the pot to the stove and reduce the heat to low.
- Slowly add 1 cup of milk at a time until combined. Continuing adding milk slowly. Mix well and stir constantly. There should be no lumps
- Increase the heat to medium and stir occasionally until the sauce gets nice and thick. It should cover the back of your spoon like in the photo. About 8 minutes.
- Add parmesan cheese and remove from heat. Continue to stir until melted. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Dry Pasta
- Add dry pasta to boiling water and a small amount of olive oil to help with sticking.
- Cook for about 7-10 minutes. These don't need to be completely done as they will cook a little bit in the assembled item. Set aside. Try and time these to be done when all your other items are as well. They may stick. Be gentle with them.
Putting it all together
- Preheat oven to 350°F | 180°F.
- Start by putting 1 thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.
- Cover with 3 strips of Lasagna or 1 sheet. Trim to fit if needed.
- Cover pasta layer with meat sauce
- Cover meat with 1 cup of white sauce, several scoops of Ricotta cheese (if using). Blend cheese layer together lightly to edges with a spatula. Just smear it all together in little swirls. Add in about 1/3 of your mozzarella cheese. Make sure you leave at least half of the remaining mozzarella cheese for the very top layer. This is what will make it nice and bubbly.
- Cover with pasta.
- Repeat the layers.
- The last layer should be Pasta->Meat Sauce ->White sauce & Ricotta ->solid layer of mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes.Watch it. You want nice and lightly browned top and cruchy tomato sides around the edge.
- The cheese should be well melted. If it is not golden and bubbling then put under the broiler for a few minutes when finished cooking.
- Tomato sauce may bubble out the sides and into your oven. You can put a baking sheet underneath, but this may affect cooking time. Expect to add up to an hour.
- Let cool for at least 10-15 minutes. This will be as hot as lava. ;)
- Garnish with parsley and serve! SO GOOD.
