Easy Peasy Beef Lasagne

4.50 from 2 votes

Homemade Beef Lasagne is a huge favourite for a reason... The combination of rich bolognese sauce, creamy béchamel, pasta and cheese is hard to beat! (Serves 4-6, depending on appetite.)

Course Main Course

Cuisine British, Fusion, Italian

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 1 5

Total Time 1 30

Servings people

Calories 489kcal

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

Bolognese sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion finely chopped
1 large carrot peeled and finely chopped
1 stick celery finely chopped
500 g beef mince
400 g tin chopped tomatoes
400 ml beef stock from a cube is fine, I use 1 Kallo organic beef stock cube
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Béchamel sauce:

50 g butter
50 g flour
500 ml milk
50 g parmesan grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Lasagne:

6 lasagne sheets (See Note 1)
50 g parmesan grated
1 ball mozzarella sliced into 8 pieces

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Bolognese sauce:

Start by making the bolognese sauce. (See Note 2.) Put the olive oil in a wide, deep saucepan and add the chopped onion, carrots and celery. Cook with the lid on over a gentle heat for about 5 minutes, until softened but not coloured.
Turn the heat up to high and add the mince. Fry for 5 minutes, or until the mince has browned all over and is flecked with darker brown.
Tip in the tinned tomatoes, beef stock and bay leaves, plus salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down low and simmer for 30 minutes.

Béchamel sauce:

While the bolognese sauce is simmering, make the béchamel sauce. Put the butter in a large saucepan over a gentle heat until all the butter has melted and just started to bubble.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir to combine. Allow this mixture to cook for 2 minutes on a very low heat, stirring occasionally.
Very gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Make sure each bit of milk is incorporated before you add the next bit. If you do this slowly on a very low heat, you should end up with a perfectly smooth béchamel sauce with no lumps and no need to whisk. However, if it does go wrong for some reason, you can always use a whisk to beat out the lumps.
When all the milk is incorporated, add the parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. (N.B. I use salted butter, so I don’t add any extra salt here.) Stir to combine, then turn off.

Lasagne:

Preheat your oven to 220C / 200C fan / gas mark 7 / 425F.
Put half the bolognese mixture in a large rectangular ovenproof dish. Lay over 3 lasagne sheets (See Note 1.) Pour over half the béchamel sauce.
Repeat this process with another layer of bolognese, another layer of lasagne and another layer of béchamel.
Finally, add the sliced mozzarella cheese and sprinkle over the remaining parmesan.
Cover the lasagne with foil and cook for 20 minutes.
Remove the foil and cook for a further 15 minutes or until brown on top and bubbling round the sides.
Serve with a simple side salad, some garlic bread and a glass of red wine.

Notes

If your dish is a different shape to mine you may need to use a different number of lasagne sheets. Use as many as you need so that you have completely covered the bolognese sauce, without too much overlap
To make homemade lasagne even quicker and easier, make a double quantity of the bolognese sauce sometime before you want to make the lasagne. That day use half the bolognese sauce for spaghetti bolognese and freeze, or refrigerate, the other half. (It will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge and up to 1 month in the freezer.) Then, when you come to make your lasagne some days later, you will already have the bolognese sauce ready to go! This cuts down the time it take to make the lasagne considerably.
Suitable for freezing (except it you have previously frozen the bolognese sauce).
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition