Video guide for easy lasagne
Now, this rustic easy lasagne has all the qualities of the traditional recipe without all the fuss. It's a firm family favourite and can all be done up in advance and takes only five minutes to get to table. The trick is to use my simple tomato sauce, mascarpone cheese and a handful of fresh ingredients. This is all you have to do.
Ingredients for lasagne
First, sauté a chopped onion and three garlic cloves in two tablespoons of olive oil until they are soft and golden. Next add one kilo of beef mince; just break up the meat in the pan and fry until it's brown.
Then add cheat number one, which is 800mls of my simple tomato sauce; the recipes are on the website. I make lots of it and use it to make so many meals. It's already flavoured with basil, parmesan and garlic but I make this really Italian, I like to add a teaspoon of oregano, then a pinch of chilli flakes and that's it for the sauce.
Just bring it to the boil, turn the heat down and leave it to simmer so it becomes rich and flavoursome.
Preparing the layers
When 45 minutes is up, it's time to layer the lasagne, so pour a third of the sauce into an ovenproof dish and spread it about a bit. Next is in with the pasta. You can use dried or fresh lasagne sheets like these, just pre-cook them in boiling water, according to the instructions, and this will save you lots of time later because the pasta is already cooked. Use half now and the rest in a moment.
Now another third of the meat sauce and instead of the classic white sauce, dot a tub of mascarpone cheese. This is a real cheat, you get all the creamy cheesiness you want and you don't have to stand for ages stirring a white sauce. Then it's on with the remaining lasagne sheets. Pre-cooking these means you can cut out a whole baking stage of the regular recipe.
Pop it in the oven
And then the final third of meat sauce and a second tub of mascarpone cheese, just dollop it on top. And finally, sprinkle over 100g of grated parmesan for extra cheesiness. And if you're making it ahead of time, just stash it in the fridge right now, but if you're ready to cook, instead of popping it into the oven for another 45 minutes, just whack it under a hot grill until the cheese is melted and it's golden. It's easy.
It just takes five minutes and it's ready. So there you go, easy lasagne, a real family favourite. How quick was that? I told you it was easy. Another great way with simple tomato sauce that will have you, your family and friends fighting over seconds.
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