Lasagna
Everyone loves a good lasagna! And nothing can beat a homemade one! It brings together all of our favorites in one dish: noodles, cheese, herbs and a delicious meat sauce. It is a great way to feed a crowd, a perfect dish for potlucks, lunch and Sunday dinners.
Homemade lasagna may have a few steps, but each step is easy and worth the time and effort. I assure you that my recipe is really easy and will give you the best lasagna you have ever tasted. It will become your favorite go-to recipe.
There are 4 main key ingredients:
- Lasagna sheets- you can use regular sheets or oven baked sheets
- Spicy flavorful meat sauce
- White sauce- I love using white sauce compared to ricotta- mozzarella mixture. This sauce gives creaminess to the dish and allows the lasagna sheets to cook in it too.
- Shredded cheese
We bake lasagna in 2 steps; first covered with the aluminum foil and then without it. Covering it helps to retain moisture and allows the sheets to cook. Then removing the foil allows the cheese on top turn golden brown.
Once the lasagna is out of the oven, allow it to cool for 30 minutes. This will allow the cheese to firm up and give you clean cuts.
Tips:
– Lasagna can be made a day ahead. Just assemble it, cover it with aluminum foil and refrigerate it. The next day, just pull it out and place it in the preheated oven.
– To skip boiling regular lasagna sheets, place them in a wide pan and pour hot water. Let them soak for 30 minutes. Give them a gentle shake every few minutes to prevent them from sticking together. Don’t worry if they still feel raw, they will finish cooking in the oven.
– Allow the lasagna to rest for 30 minutes before slicing it. This will give clean pieces.
– Lightly brush oil on the aluminum foil you will use to cover the lasagna. Place the oiled side on the lasagna. This will prevent the cheese from sticking to the foil while it is baking.
– Any leftovers can be covered and stored in the fridge for up to 5 days.
– You can reheat it in the oven at 350F until warmed through. For individual portions you can reheat in the microwave at 45 seconds interval until it is done.
– It can also be frozen- unbaked and baked- for 1 month. Assemble it, cover it with aluminum foil and place in the freezer. If you have any leftovers, cover and freeze. When you are ready to eat, move it from the freezer to the fridge so that it can thaw overnight. Then bake or reheat as mentioned above.
Lasagna
Ingredients
Ingredients for Meat Sauce
- 500 grams ground beef (can use ground chicken too)
- 4 tablespoons oil
- 2 large onions (chopped)
- 2 teaspoon ginger- garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
- 3 tablespoons ketchup OR tomato paste
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup pasta sauce (or blend 2 tomatoes)
- 1-2 teaspoon red chili powder
- ½ tablespoon Sriracha sauce (or any favorite hot sauce)
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Ingredients for White Sauce
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 3 cups liquid milk
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
Other Ingredients
- 9 lasagne sheets (oven-baked or normal)
- 2-3 cups shredded cheese
- aluminum foil (lightly brush oil on one side)
- extra oregano or Italian herbs
Instructions
Preparing Meat Sauce:
- In a large saucepan on medium-high heat, add oil. Add onions and fry until translucent.
- Add ginger garlic paste, black pepper powder and ground beef and sauté until the meat changes color.
- Then, add pasta sauce, ketchup/tomato paste, salt, red chili powder, Sriracha. Give it a stir, cover and cook until meat is almost ready (will take around 15 minutes).
- Finally, add garam masala, oregano and lemon juice and switch off the heat.
- You should end up with a meat mixture that should not be dry.
Preparing white sauce:
- In a saucepan on medium-high heat, melt butter and add the all purpose flour.
- Using a whisk, keep stirring and cook for about one minute. This will remove the raw smell and taste of the flour.
- REMOVE THE SAUCEPAN FROM THE HEAT and add in the milk slowly, whisking continuously to prevent any lumps from forming.
- Once all the milk is added and there are no lumps, move the saucepan back to the heat and add in the salt and black pepper powder.
- Keep stirring with a spatula until the sauce thickens. Make sure to keep stirring continuously, or the sauce will stick to the bottom of the saucepan and burn.
- The sauce will not thicken too much, and it still will be a little bit runny.
Assembling the Lasagna
- Preheat the oven at 350 °F.
- Grease an oven-proof dish. You can use a 9 x 13 inch dish or two 8 x 8 dishes.
- Add ¼ cup of the white sauce to the bottom of the dish (this will prevent your lasagna sheets from burning or sticking to the dish).
- Then, start layering in the following order: sheet ——> meat sauce —–> white sauce —–> cheese
- Continue this layering pattern until all your sheets and meat sauce is used.
- Sprinkle on some extra cheese to the final layer. Sprinkle some oregano or Italian herbs too.
- Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil with the oiled side facing down.
- Bake for 40 minutes.
- After 40 minutes, remove the foil and broil on the LOW setting for 3 to 4 minutes only.
- Remove from the oven and let your lasagna cool for 30 minutes before cutting into it to get cleaner cuts.
Notes
- Ground beef can be substituted by ground chicken.
- Don’t dry out the meat mixture, it should be saucy but not runny.
- Use a whisk when adding milk to make the white sauce. The whisk prevents lumps from forming.
- Broiling in the end gives a lovely golden color to the cheese.
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3 Comments
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F.
Tried this recipe a couple of times, and it is a bomb!! Absolutely delicious, and looks gorgeous: broiling it for that golden color is such an helpful pro-tip. Thanks Falak for these delightful recipes. Will make again
Falak
Thank you for your wonderful feedback!