Lasagne with Fresh Pasta

There is nothing that compares to the melt in the mouth taste of homemade pasta in any dish.
No hard bits-not undercooked bits or crisp inedible areas-all just yummy!

So-using my homemade pasta (See pasta post)I more or less made my lasagne from scratch.

O.k. I do admit to cheating on the white sauce! For this one, I used half mince and half lentils.

I precooked 80g of dry lentils then drained.

Ingredients

• 250g of minced beef or beef and pork or turkey if you prefer.
• 80g of dry lentils cooked-makes about 200g
• 1 basic beef stock cube
• 2 medium onions diced
• 5 largish mushrooms-optional
• Half a teaspoon chilli flakes-I add them to so many things
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano-more if you like
• 1 teaspoon garlic-again-sorry-I add it to everything
• 1 and a half tins of tomatoes (600g)
• 1 jar white lasagne sauce-Aldis -yes-I cheated!
• 80g of grated mature cheddar cheese-Aldis-(the one at £1.79 per pack)

Method:

• Chop onions and mushrooms. Saute the onion until soft in a little vegetable oil-any type will do
• Add the chopped mushrooms and the mince and mix well together-cook until the meat has lost all pinkness.
• Add the lentils and a chopped up stock cube and the herbs garlic ancd chilli and mix the together.
• Add the tinned tomatoes. If they are whole tomatoes break them up in the pan-give it all a good stir.

• Cook it for about 20 mins from the time it is boiling, and the flavours have absorbed.
• I let mine cool for about 10 mins-make yourself a cuppa.
• Now start layering your lasagna dish. How many layers depend on the size of the dish. Mine is quite large but not all that deep. I find the following works for me.
• However-you may prefer your layers in a different order-that is up to you.

• One layer mince ragu mix then a layer of pasta.
• Another layer mince ragu mix then a layer of pasta
• A final layer of any remaining pasta
• Then finally spread the contents of the jar of lasagne sauce over the top of the dish and sprinkle the cheese on top.

Cook on Gas 6 or electric 225c for about 40 mins until golden at the edges-see my photos.

All ovens vary and fan ovens often don’t need as long.

**If you don’t wish to use lentils you can simply double the mince to 500g**