Food & Wine
Best-ever beef lasagne
Making lasagne from scratch can be time consuming, but parts (or all of it) can be prepared ahead.
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients:
Beef ragu
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled, finely chopped
- 75g smoked pancetta or bacon, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 10g porcini, soaked in ½ cup boiling water for 20 minutes (optional)
- 1kg beef mince
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 400g can tomatoes
- 1 cup beef stock
Spinach pasta
- 400g spinach, stems removed, washed (approx. 250g picked weight)
- 200g-300g Tipo 00 flour (or use standard flour)
- 2 extra large eggs
Bechamel sauce and to garnish
- 100g butter
- 100g flour
- 1.4 litres milk, heated
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 50g freshly grated parmesan
Method:
- To make the ragu, heat the oil in a large saucepan then add the onion, celery, carrots, pancetta and salt. Cook gently for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
- Drain the porcini, reserving the soaking liquid. Chop the porcini and add to the pan. Cook for another 5 minutes then add the beef mince, stirring and breaking up any lumps until it has browned.
- Add the milk and cook until it has almost reduced completely. Add the wine, reserved porcini liquid, tomatoes and stock – at this stage there will be a lot of liquid.
- Cook slowly over a low heat for a minimum of an hour, but ideally 2 hours, until the liquid has almost disappeared (you may need to add extra water during cooking if it's looking too dry).
- The ragu can be made ahead then gently reheated before assembling the lasagne.
- To make the pasta, blanch the spinach in boiling salted water. Transfer to a colander to drain and cool. Squeeze out as much of the moisture from the spinach as you can then finely chop.
- Put the spinach, flour, 1 egg and 1 yolk (reserve the remaining egg white in case the mix is too dry) in a mixer with a bread hook attachment. Mix until the dough comes together – if it feels sticky to touch, add a little more flour. Knead for 5 minutes (alternatively use a food processor to mix the dough until it just comes together, then knead by hand, adding more flour if necessary).
- Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes then roll it out in a pasta machine on the second-to-last setting. Cut the pasta into lengths to fit your lasagne dish. Blanch, in batches, in a saucepan of boiling salted water for 30 seconds then plunge into cold water. Rub the pasta sheets gently to remove any starch, then place on clean tea towels and gently pat dry.
- To make the béchamel sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan then add the flour and cook, stirring, for a minute or two until golden. Slowly add the hot milk, stirring constantly until thickened and smooth. Simmer gently for 10 minutes to cook the flour then stir in the nutmeg. Remove from the heat and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C. Butter a deep baking dish then line with a sheet of pasta – I like to ruffle it up rather than put it down flat. Scatter a couple of spoonfuls of ragu over the pasta and then do the same with the béchamel (you don't have to smooth it down or evenly layer the mix).
- Repeat at least 4 more times (I made 6 layers). After adding the last layer of pasta, top with the remaining béchamel.
- Sprinkle with the parmesan then bake for 40 minutes.
Do you think you have the best ever lasagne recipe? Share it with us in the comments below!
Written by Ginny Grant. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.
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