Beefy Lasagne

Ingredients

Bolognese filling
• ~450g lean minced beef
• ~7 slices Parma ham
• ~180g Gluten-free Boerewors sausage
• 1 large onion, peeled & chopped roughly
• 1 large carrot, peeled & chopped roughly
• 2 celery sticks, halved
• 3 large garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 x 400g tin peeled plum tomatoes
• 3 tbsp tomato purée
• ~100ml red wine
• balsamic vinegar, optional - to taste
• brown sugar, optional - to taste
• ½ tsp harissa spice mix
• 50g pitted black olives
• extra virgin olive oil
Bechamel sauce
• 750ml whole milk
• 75g salted butter
• 2 heaped tbsp gluten-free white flour mix
• ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• pinch of ground allspice
• salt, optional -to taste
Lasagne
• ~12 pasta sheets
• 125g grated cheese, mozzarella and/or cheddar

Instructions

Make the Bolognese filling
1. Empty the tinned tomatoes into a bowl and stir in the crushed garlic, dried rosemary and thyme. With a little water (about 50ml) rinse the tomato juices from the tin into the bowl. Leave aside for later use.
2. Next, put the onion, carrot and celery in the food mixer and mix until they are chopped small or minced. In a large heavy saucepan or frying pan heat a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Add the minced carrot, celery and onion to the pan, cover and leave to sweat on a gentle heat for 5 minutes.
3. Mince the pitted black olives in the food mixer and place in a bowl for later use.
4. Next, mince the Parma ham in the food mixer. I like to pull off as much of the fat from the Parma ham as possible as there is plenty of fat in the beef sausage so the fat from the Parma ham isn’t required.
5. Crumble the beef mince, minced ham and the Boerewors together with your fingers. The sausage doesn’t have any casing so it easy to pull apart. You can also mix it up in the food mixer but this tends to give the meat a paste-like quality which makes it a bit difficult to break up into a mince as it’s frying. But don’t worry you will still break it up easily enough with a fork.
6. Once the carrot, onion and celery have softened a little, push them out to the sides of the pan, turn the heat up to high and add the minced meat-mix to the pan, moving it around until it’s all turned brown, and breaking it up with a fork if needed.
7. Once the meat has browned pour in the bowl of tomatoes, garlic and herbs. Break up the tomatoes with a fork or potato masher. Stir around well. Bring to the boil.
8. Stir in the wine and harissa. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 15 minutes.
9. Stir in the tomato puree and the minced black olives. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
10. Taste to see if it needs more salt or sugar or some sharpness. I usually find there is no need for extra salt but I will often add a little brown sugar and/or a good splash of balsamic vinegar. Turn off the heat and cover the pan.
Make the Bechamel sauce

11. Melt the butter in a saucepan on a gentle heat. This will only take a couple of minutes. Be careful not to let the butter burn. Once the butter is melted, add the flour, nutmeg and allspice. Stir in well to a smooth consistency. This butter-flour blend is called a roux and it is the base of many sauces. Cook the roux on a gentle heat for a further 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously to ensure it doesn’t burn. You want to make sure the flour is completely cooked, otherwise your sauce can taste a little floury or doughy.
12. Add in a good splash of milk and stir it in well so that it’s well combined. I use a whisk for this. Turn up the heat. Add in half of the rest of the milk and keep whisking so that it thickens smoothly. It will take a few minutes for it to thicken. Be patient, with the amount of flour you’ve added it will thicken. Once it does, pour in the rest of the milk and keep whisking until it thickens. It’s important to keep whisking and scraping around the base and sides of the saucepan so that it doesn’t burn. Again, it will take a few minutes to thicken but it will thicken. Once it has the right consistency, remove from the heat. Taste and add some salt if you like.
Assemble the lasagne

13. Grease an oven dish with a little oil. Add a few spoons of the white sauce over this and line a layer of pasta sheets over it and cover with a layer of the filling. Add some white sauce over the filling before adding another layer. Repeat until you have used up all the filling, there should be plenty for three layers. After the third layer of bolognese filling pour over the rest of the Bechamel sauce and top with either sliced or grated mozzarella cheese. The lasagne is now assembled. To ensure that the pasta sheets are properly softened, I leave it an hour before baking - 30 minutes will do, but usually I leave it overnight, or freeze it once it’s cooled completely and then bake it from frozen at some later date.
Bake the lasagne

14. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C until the top is golden brown and blistering. When ready remove from the oven and leave to cool for at least 15 minutes as it will be much easier to slice after cooling a little.