This is another dish made without any formal recipe, and what was to hand, so here goes. All quantities mentioned are what I ended up using. The dish was about 8×11 so almost the size of a sheet of A4 and 4″ deep.
Bolognaise
12 x Lasagne Sheets
12oz Minced Beef
12oz Mushed Tomatoes + Basil + Oregano (These were in a cardboard carton)
2 x Tablespoons Tomato Puree
1 x Diced Medium White Onion
8-10 Diced Chestnut Mushrooms
3-4 Cloves Crushed or Finely Diced Garlic
1 x Beef Stock Cube
White Sauce
2oz Plain White Flour
2oz Butter
1½pints Milk
Grated Parmesan/Chedder
Firstly turn on your oven to 180ºC. In a pan over medium heat melt the butter. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the flour a bit at a time. You should end up with a v. soft shiny dough, a roux. Slowly add the milk stirring constantly and return to the heat. Add the grated cheese. Take off the heat when the cheese has melted. Don’t worry too much about small lumps. You’ll be warming it up again later and it’ll form a skin and go a bit lumpy now anyhow.
In a large flat sided pan warm some olive oil. When it’s hot but not smoking add the garlic, onion and mince. Stir occasionally until the mince has browned off. Add the mushrooms, salt, pepper, dried basil, crushed stock cube, tomatoes, tomato puree and stir well. At this point I added ½ pint of water as well as it looked very dry. Wait until it simmers, stirring occasionally, and then turn down the heat a bit so it can be left to reduce.
When it has reduced sufficiently reheat the white sauce stirring constantly.
In your dish layer your bolognaise sauce (yes I’m using the french name, deal with it), white sauce and pasta sheets however you want. I didn’t have much in the way of white sauce, in fact the recipe above has the quantities adjusted from 1pt to 1½pt because of that, so I layered it, top to bottom:
More Grated Parmesan and a bit of Chedder
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White Sauce
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Pasta
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Bolognaise
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Pasta
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White Sauce
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Pasta
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Bolognese
Cook in the oven for 45 minutes. I turned the dish around after 30 minutes to brown it a bit more evenly. Serve it with a few green veg or salad. Especially good with a mixed green leaf salad and some garlic bread.
Lasagne