52 deliciousmagazine.co.uk
FOR THE BÉCHAMEL
- Vegetable prep detritus from
meat sauce, above - 1 litre full-fat milk, plus
more as needed - 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes (or
½ teaspoon fine sea salt) - A good grinding of white
pepper - 2 fresh bay leaves
- 100g unsalted butter
- 100g plain flour
- 3 x 15ml tablespoons
(approx 25g) freshly grated
Parmesan
FOR ASSEMBLING
- 18-20 dried lasagne
sheets - 1 ball mozzarella, not
bufala - 5 x 15ml tablespoons (approx
40g) freshly grated Parmesan
1 Chop the onions, dropping
the peeled skin into a saucepan
big enough to make the
béchamel shortly. I use one
22cm in diameter and 9cm deep.
2 In a large, heavy-based
casserole or pan that comes
with a lid (I use an enamelled
cast-iron casserole of 26cm
diameter, with a capacity of
5.3 litres, and wouldn’t advise
going any smaller) warm
3 tablespoons of the oil and,
over medium-low heat, cook
the onions for 5 minutes. Then
turn down to low and cook for
a further 15 minutes, stirring
every now and again until the
onions are beginning to soften
and colour.
3 While the onions are cooking,
first stir the tomato purée into
the 125ml of milk and set aside
for a mo. Peel the carrots if
they need it (if they’re organic,
or the skin looks tender, I don’t
bother) and chop them each
into 3 or 4 pieces, dropping
them into the bowl of a food
processor and the peelings and
any discarded pieces into the
saucepan with the onion skin.
Tear the celery into pieces and
add to the processor, then peel
the garlic (dropping the
peelings into the béchamel
pan) and add the cloves to the
processor. Cut the pancetta (or
bacon) up a bit and add to the
processor as well, along with
the parsley (you can use all the
tender stems, too). Strip enough
thyme leaves from the stems to
give you 1 tablespoon, add this
too (or use 1 teaspoon of dried
thyme) and blitz until everything
is finely chopped, but not mush.
Obviously, you could chop
everything by hand. In which
case, don’t drive yourself mad
trying to get everything as fine
as the processor version.
4 When the 15 minutes is up
on the onions, heat the oven
to 170°C/150°C fan. Scrape
every last bit of the bacon-y
vegetable mixture from the
processor into the pan, turn the
heat up to medium-high, stir
well and cook for 5 minutes,
then turn the heat down again
to medium-low, sprinkle in the
chilli flakes, and cook for
another 5 minutes.
5 At this stage, I feel I should
tell you to remove all the
vegetables in order to brown
the meat properly, but I have
taken to simply adding it on top
of what’s in the pan already. So,
turn the heat to high, crumble
in the minced beef and pork and
turn well in the pan for about
5 minutes. If you need to add
another tablespoon of oil, do.
6 Add the wine (or vermouth),
let it bubble up, and then pour
in the beef stock, the tins of
chopped tomatoes, the tomato
purée and milk mixture, salt
and bay leaves and bring to a
bubble. Taste to see if you want
to add any more salt, then
clamp on a tightly fitting lid
and transfer to the oven,
leaving it to cook for 1 hour.
7 Straightaway, pour the litre
of milk for the béchamel over
the vegetable peelings, add the
salt, pepper and bay leaves and
bring almost to the boil, but
don’t let it boil. Turn off the heat,
cover with a tightly fitting lid
(which will stop it from gettinga skin, as well as making the
flavours infuse better) and leave
while the meat sauce cooks.
When the meat sauce has been
in the oven for 45 minutes,
strain the milk into a large
batter jug. If, when all the milk
has dripped through, you are
short of your full litre, just pour
in a little more milk to top up.
8 Clean out the pan (just with
water’s fine – you don’t need
soap), dry it well and melt the
butter in it, then add the flour
and mix together, over medium
heat, for a couple of minutes,
forming your roux, and cooking
it a little; you should have a dingy
primrose paste that, somehow,
magically, seems to come away
from the pan and cleave to itself
as you stir and move it about.
9 Take the pan off the heat,
swap your wooden spoon for a
whisk (preferably a little one
that’s good for removing
lumps) and slowly whisk in the
milk. Don’t worry, by the way,
that the milk (thanks to the
onion skins) will have a slightly
peachy tone about it. I rather
like it, actually, not that it is
visible in the finished sauce.
10 When all the milk is whisked
in, carry on whisking until
you’ve got a smooth cream in
the pan, and then put it back
on the heat, lowish, and keep
whisking until you have a very,
very thick sauce, with all taste
of flouriness banished; this
will take 5–7 minutes. Off
the heat, quickly whisk in the
3 tablespoons of Parmesan
and then scrape every last bit
back into the batter jug, tasting
for seasoning as you go.
11 Take the meat sauce out of
the oven and give a gentle stir
with a large ladle. Once you
can taste it without burning
your mouth, check for
seasoning: it may well need
more salt; do not be timid.
12 Now, it’s just a matter of
layering up. My lasagne dish
measures 24 x 35 x 6cm and
it’s a pretty tight fit. Sit the dish
on a baking tray. Line the dishwith a couple of ladlefuls of the
meat sauce, aiming to get more
liquid than meat, and cover with
a layer of lasagne sheets. I get
4 sheets in the bottom layer but
find that for subsequent layers
I need extra, which I snap into
pieces for patching gaps. Put
a couple more ladlefuls of the
liquidy bit of sauce into a jug
or bowl, and set aside for now.
13 Put a third of your béchamel
on top of the lasagne sheets
and use a spatula to help
spread it a little, but don’t
worry about making an
absolutely even, edge-to-edge
covering. Top with a third of
your remaining meat sauce,
then cover with another layer
of lasagne sheets, followed by
your second third of béchamel,
second third of meat sauce and
a third layer of lasagne sheets.
Add your remaining béchamel
and meat sauce in order and
top with a final layer of pasta
sheets, then add the set-aside
liquidy meat sauce to cover,
pressing down to make sure
the top layer of pasta is, if not
submerged exactly, then lightly
covered. Leave now for at least
30 minutes, but longer (up to 2
days) if needed; if you’re leaving
it for more than about 2 hours,
you will need to refrigerate it.
14 When you are ready to bake
your lasagne, heat the oven to
200°C/180°C fan. Finely chop
or shred the mozzarella and
sprinkle over the top of the
unbaked lasagne, then sprinkle
over the Parmesan. Cover with
foil, trying not to press it down,
and bake for 40 minutes (if it’s
been refrigerated it’ll probably
need 1 hour). Remove the foil
(pull off any cheese that’s stuck
to it and add it back on top of the
lasagne) and cook for a further
30 minutes until it’s slightly
scorched in parts, the cheese
gooey, the pasta swollen and
runkled on top, and everything
piping hot all the way through.
15 Leave to stand, if you can
bear it, for 20-30 minutes
before diving in. →