Ang Sarap (A Tagalog word for "It's Delicious")

Lasagna

Day three of minced meat week, and we already had featured an Asian Meatball dish and a very different type of sauce. For today lets make something popular and nothing can be as popular as the humble Lasagna.

Lasagna is an Italian pasta dish made out of different layers of wide flat pasta, Béchamel Sauce (cheese sauce), and a meat sauce. Origins of this popular Italian dish have several theories. First, it came from the Greek “laganon”, a flat sheet of pasta dough cut into strips. Another theory is that it came from the Greek “lasana” or “lasanon”, which means chamber pot. It was said that the Romans borrowed the word as “lasanum” which means “cooking pot”, the dish is usually made during those times. Finally, it was said that it came from a 14th century English recipe called “Loseyn”, which have close similarities to Lasagna in terms of ingredients used and methods of preparation.

A real good comfort meal on any day, especially once you got the right combination and texture of that béchamel sauce and meat sauce. You will always keep on coming back for more.

Ingredients (Meat Sauce)

350g minced beef
350g minced pork
100g bacon, chopped
1 red large onion, chopped
10 large tomatoes chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small tub tomato paste
1 1/2 cup beef stock
handful of chopped basil leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
salt
pepper
oil
Ingredients (Béchamel Sauce)

4 tbsp butter
5 tbsp plain flour
800ml milk
1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt
pepper

Other Ingredients

Mozzarella Cheese, grated
Parmesan Cheese, grated
1 box Instant Lasagne sheets

Method (Meat Sauce)

1. In a pan add oil and brown bacon,
2. Add onions and garlic, stir until onions are soft and cooked.
3. Add mince pork and beef continuously stirring until brown.
4. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and beef stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Add sugar, basil, oregano then season with salt and pepper.

Method (Béchamel Sauce)

1. Melt butter in a pot then stir in flour.
2. Continue stirring while gradually pouring milk.
3. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
4. Continue stirring until sauce becomes smooth and thick

Method (Lasagne)

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. In a baking dish (13 x 9), cover the base with meat sauce.
3. Place lasagne sheets, then the meat sauce, then béchamel sauce and mozzarella cheese. Repeat this 3 times creating 3 layers of pasta with sauce.
4. On the top most layers sprinkle a good amount of parmesan cheese.
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until cooked.