This is a good recipe for meat lasagne. Just don’t make the meat and cheese layers very thick. It is much healthier than the version with white sauce and doesn’t go soggy and collapse, a problem that my lasagnes have, probably because I make the layers too thick.

Best Beef Lasagne Recipe

–Serves 12 people–

Ingredients

  • 200g chorizo
  • 600g of good mince – not fatty
  • ½ cup of chopped onions
  • 2 cloves of garlic chopped
  • 1 (740g) can of crushed tomatoes
  • 2 (230g) cans of tomato sauce
  • 2 (168g) cans of tomato paste
  • ½ cup of water
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seed ground
  • 2 teaspoons fresh Basil leaves chopped
  • 4 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • 500g of ricotta cheese.
  • ½ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
  • 1 egg
  • 500g grated mozzarella cheese divided into three portions
  • 1 cup (approx 100g) grated Parmesan cheese divided into two portions
  • Enough lasagne noodles to make four layers in the selected baking pan (approx. 35cm x 25cm). Work out how many noodles to be used by laying out in the pan. I used 2 ½ per layer.

Method meat layer:

  1. Brown the ground beef, chorizo, onions and garlic.
  2. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, sugar, fennel, basil, 2 tbs of the parsley, salt, oregano, pepper.
  3. Cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours, (or cook in the pressure cooker for 15 minutes and then simmer to thicken).

Method ricotta layer:

  1. Mix ricotta cheese, nutmeg, egg, 2 tbs parsley, divide into two portions and set aside.

Building the lasagne layers:

  1. If using dried noodles follow directions on lasagne noodle packet or soak noodles for 15 minutes in warm water, drain. If using home made noodles then you already know what to do.
  2. Spread 2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of the pan, cover with lasagne noodles
  3. Spread with first portion of the ricotta mixture, then 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese and
    half of the parmesan cheese over the mozzarella layer. Cover with noodles
  4. Spread with 2 cups of meat sauce, cover with lasagne noodles.
  5. Spread with the 2nd portion of the ricotta mixture, then 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese and the last half of the parmesan cheese. Cover with noodles
  6. Add the remaining meat sauce, and top with the remaining mozzarella cheese.
  7. Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven at 170º C for 25 minutes.
  8. Remove foil and bake uncovered for another 25 minutes or until browned and bubbly.
  9. Remove from oven and allow to set for approximately 15 minutes.