International dishesSavory CakesEurope and North America1 hour 30 minutes
Lasagna with tomato and bechamel sauce gives a many layered slice with a golden brown cheese top that still stands up when cut. The difficulty is that the sheets tear easily and the whole thing slumps when cut hot.
After soaking, the sheets go onto an oiled tray and get patted dry, and the finished lasagna waits a full 15 minutes to set before it is cut. The ground beef is broken up small so the sauce does not clump.
This batch weighs about 1.4kg, at roughly 177 calories per 100g.
Method
Peel and wash the carrot and onion and dice them. Peel and mince the garlic.
Soak the lasagna sheets in boiling water for 20 to 30 minutes until soft, drain them completely, then lay them out on an oiled tray and pat them dry with paper towel, working gently so they do not tear.
Heat 1/3 tablespoon of olive oil, add the garlic, onion and carrot and cook over medium heat, stirring steadily.
Add 200g of ground beef, 1 teaspoon of dried parsley, 1 teaspoon of oregano and 4 fennel seeds and cook until just done, breaking the meat up small so it does not clump.
Add 180g of tomato sauce and 150g of diced tomato, season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cook for about 20 minutes until the sauce thickens, then take it off the heat.
Melt 20g of unsalted butter over very low heat, sprinkle in 20g of flour a little at a time and stir for 2 minutes so it stays smooth.
Pour in 240ml of unsweetened oat milk slowly while stirring, then cook over low heat for 5 to 7 minutes until the sauce is smooth and thick, and season lightly with salt and pepper.
Spread a layer of tomato sauce across the base of the dish, then a layer of pasta sheets, a layer of bechamel, a layer of cheese and another layer of tomato sauce. Repeat for a full 3 layers of pasta, with cheese as the top layer.
Lay baking paper over the dish, seal it with foil and bake at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes.
Take off the paper and foil and bake another 5 to 10 minutes until the cheese top is golden brown.
Take the dish out of the oven, wait 15 minutes for it to set, then cut and serve hot.
Tips
Sheets labelled no boil skip the soaking step entirely.
Shredded mozzarella is the easy choice and pulls into strings nicely, with some Cheddar mixed in for depth.
Without a pasta tomato sauce, fresh tomatoes blended and reduced work in its place, while ketchup is too sweet and too sharply sour for the job.
An aluminium dish is worth avoiding, since the acid in the tomato reacts with it and changes the taste.
Bechamel holds a ratio of 1 butter, 1 flour, 12 milk, and oat milk simply needs a little longer stirring to thicken.
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