Lasagne al Forno (Italian Beef Lasagna)

Step 1

Finely chop the carrot, onion and celery and saute the vegetables gently in a large frying pan with the olive oil. Once the vegetables are soft add the beef and pork mince and cook until browned.

Step 2

If there is a lot of excess fat in the pan, spoon some out. Add the red wine and reduce by half.

Step 3

Once the wine has reduced, add the sieved tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves, 4 cups of beef stock (1 litre) and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Step 4

Stir everything together and leave to simmer on a low heat for 2.5-3 hours uncovered. Add the rest of the beef stock half way through.

Step 5

Add the butter to a saucepan and cook until melted and bubbling.

Step 6

Add the flour to the melted butter and stir to form a paste. Let the flour cook for 1 minute.

Step 7

Slowly whisk half of the milk into the butter and flour constantly whisking to avoid any lumps. Once it has started to thicken add the rest of the milk, nutmeg, parmesan and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Step 8

Continue to heat the sauce whilst stirring until thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Take off the heat and set aside.

Step 9

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).

Step 10

To assemble the lasagne, spoon a small amount of ragu on the very bottom of the baking dish. Top with and even layer of lasagna pasta sheets (cut the pasta sheets to fit your baking dish).

Step 11

Add a few more spoons of ragu so the pasta is completely covered followed by 2 ladels of white sauce.

Step 12

Repeat the layers of pasta, ragu and bechamel sauce until everything is used up making sure to keep enough of bechamel sauce for the very top layer (you should have 4-5 layers of pasta).

Step 13

Cover the top layer of the lasagne with torn mozzarella and then bake in the oven for 45minutes or until bubbling and golden.

Step 14

Let it cool slightly for 5-10 minutes before serving.