Beef Lasagne

Name: Beef Lasagne
Cook time: 4 h
Total time: 4 h
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 500 g beef mince; 250 g pork mince; 150 g pancetta; 1 onion; 2 carrots; 2 celery sticks; 3 cloves garlic; 200 ml red wine; 800 g tinned whole plum tomatoes; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 300 ml whole milk; 2 bay leaves; 80 g butter; 80 g plain flour; 1 litre whole milk, for the béchamel; Fresh nutmeg; 250 g dried lasagne sheets; 150 g Parmigiano Reggiano; 2 tbsp olive oil; Salt and black pepper

A ragù given three hours and a béchamel made properly. Long, mostly unattended, and the best thing to make on a Sunday.

🕐 240 min👥 8 servings🍽️ Main Course 🍝 Italian

Nutrition Info (per serving)

780
Calories: 44g
Protein: 42g
Fat: 52g
Carbs

Vitamin AVitamin B12RiboflavinVitamin DCalciumIronZincPhosphorus

Ingredients

500 g beef mince
250 g pork mince
150 g pancetta
1 onion
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
3 cloves garlic
200 ml red wine
800 g tinned whole plum tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato purée
300 ml whole milk
2 bay leaves
80 g butter
80 g plain flour
1 litre whole milk, for the béchamel
Fresh nutmeg
250 g dried lasagne sheets
150 g Parmigiano Reggiano
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Instructions

1Finely dice the onion, carrots and celery — this is the soffritto and it wants to be small and even. Mince the garlic and chop the pancetta.
2Heat the olive oil in a large heavy casserole over medium heat and cook the pancetta for 5 minutes until its fat renders.
3Add the soffritto and a pinch of salt and cook gently for 12 to 15 minutes, until completely soft and sweet. Do not rush this; it is the foundation of the whole sauce.
4Add the garlic for 1 minute, then turn the heat to high and add both minces. Break them up and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, letting the meat brown properly rather than steam. Work in two batches if the pan looks crowded.
5Pour in the red wine and scrape the base of the pan. Simmer until it has almost entirely evaporated.
6Add the 300 ml of milk and simmer until that too has mostly gone. Milk in a ragù is traditional in Bologna and it tenderises the meat and rounds off the acidity of the tomatoes that follow.
7Crush the tomatoes by hand and add them with the tomato purée, the bay leaves, a good pinch of salt and plenty of pepper.
8Bring to a bare simmer, part-cover, and cook for 3 hours, stirring every half hour. It should barely bubble. The sauce is ready when it is thick, dark and glossy and fat has risen to the surface.
9For the béchamel, melt the butter in a saucepan, whisk in the flour and cook for 2 minutes until it smells biscuity rather than raw.
10Add the litre of milk a little at a time, whisking constantly and letting each addition come together before the next. Adding it all at once is what causes lumps.
11Simmer gently for 8 minutes, whisking, until it thickly coats a spoon. Season with salt and a good grating of nutmeg.
12Heat the oven to 180C fan. Assemble in a deep dish: a thin layer of ragù, then pasta sheets, then ragù, then béchamel, then a scatter of Parmigiano. Repeat for four layers, finishing with béchamel and a heavy layer of cheese.
13Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until deep golden and bubbling at the edges.
14Rest for at least 20 minutes before cutting. Straight from the oven it will slide apart; twenty minutes lets it set into slices.

Lasagne is not difficult, it is long. Almost all of the four hours is unattended, and almost all of the quality comes from not shortening the parts that take time.

The soffritto is not chopped onion

Onion, carrot and celery, finely diced and cooked slowly until genuinely soft, is the base of most Italian braises. Fifteen minutes over medium heat, not five over high.

Cooked properly, the vegetables sweeten and dissolve into the sauce and you never encounter them as pieces. Rushed, they stay firm and the ragù tastes of separate ingredients rather than one thing.

Brown the meat, do not steam it

Mince releases a lot of water. Added to a pan that is not hot enough, or in too great a quantity, it sits and boils in that water and turns grey.

You want it in a hot pan, in batches, left alone long enough to develop a brown crust on the underside before you break it up. This is where a large share of the flavour comes from and it is the step most often skipped.

Milk before tomatoes

Adding milk and reducing it before the tomatoes go in is standard in a Bolognese ragù. The lactic acid and calcium tenderise the meat proteins, and the dairy softens the acidity of the tomatoes that follow.

It looks strange in the pan for a minute and then disappears entirely.

Three hours at a bare simmer

The sauce should barely move — a bubble breaking the surface every second or two. A rolling boil tightens the meat and scorches the base.

Over three hours the collagen in the mince converts to gelatine, the tomatoes lose their sharpness, and the whole thing reduces and darkens. You will see fat separate and rise, which is the sign it is done.

The béchamel needs a proper roux

Cook the flour and butter for two full minutes before any milk goes in. Raw flour tastes chalky and no amount of simmering afterwards removes it.

Then add the milk gradually, whisking. Lumps happen when cold milk hits hot roux all at once and the starch gelatinises around dry pockets of flour. Added slowly, each addition disperses before the next arrives.

Nutmeg is not optional in a béchamel. It is a small amount and its absence is noticeable.

Rest before cutting

Twenty minutes out of the oven lets the starch and the béchamel set. Cut it immediately and you get a delicious landslide.

Nutrition

Around 780 calories a portion from eight, with 44 grams of protein and a substantial amount of calcium from the milk and cheese.

The ragù freezes beautifully for three months and is worth making in double quantity — it is also the sauce for tagliatelle, which is what Bologna actually serves it with.

Comments

No comments yet — be the first