Simple Lasagna recipe from a non-pasta fan (:

Hi peopleee, greetings to all the foodies, hedonists, everyone who enjoys food, not just eating it but also making it. 😊 Today I have a lasagna recipe on the menu for you. I started making it this summer, I had never even made it before, probably because I'm not a huge fan of pasta and macaroni, so I never really felt like making them either. I consulted my mom a little, the internet a little and came up with this basic and simplest way of preparing them, which has worked for me all three times.

And I have to admit, as someone who isn't a pasta fan, it actually went really nicely for a change with a glass of cold yogurt. That won't automatically put me in the fan club, but I can't say it's something bad or tasteless. Quite the opposite!

It's just that I'm much more of a fan of fresh dough, pizza, bread rolls, pancakes ... ☺️

Here is a super simple recipe for super lasagna for all your super people who want to make a super lunch and turn an ordinary day into a super day, hihi. 😁

You will need the following ingredients:

• 500 g package of lasagna sheets

For the red sauce (Bolognese):

• 500 to 600 g of ground meat (mixed beef and pork is best)

• 2 full tablespoons of lard
• 2 large onions
• 2 to 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 medium-sized carrots
• 500 ml of tomato juice
• Seasonings: salt and pepper to taste

For the white sauce (Béchamel):

• 60 g of butter
• 60 g of flour (about 3 level tablespoons)
• 1 l of milk
• Seasonings: salt and pepper to taste

For topping:

• 400 g of semi-hard cheese (I used Gouda and Edam)

Besides that, of course, you can add basil to the red sauce, a glass of good red wine, a little sugar and whatever else usually goes in it. But I didn't. You can also add nutmeg and a little lemon to the white Béchamel sauce, it all depends on the recipe you’ are following and your taste. I went with this version because it felt like a safe bet, just so I wouldn't mess something up. (: Oh yes, Parmesan too, you can add that as well, just like some chopped fresh parsley over the lasagna when you serve it. There are a million options, whatever you do, you really can't go wrong. I just hope the Italians don't hear me saying this, hehe. xD <3

As for the preparation, it is pretty simple too, just like the ingredients themselves. I first fried two large finely chopped onions in two tablespoons of lard, then added 3 cloves of garlic and 2 grated carrots. Once everything had softened nicely, I added the meat (it was around 550 g in total) and later 500 ml of tomato juice. And that's it, just a few minutes of simmering and we move on to the white sauce.

For the white sauce, I fried 60 g of flour in 60 g of melted butter over low heat and slowly poured in 1 l of milk, added salt and pepper to taste and stirred until it thickened a little, and that's it, easy as pie.

Then came the most interesting part, assembling the lasagna in an ovenproof baking dish. Oh yes, before that, I also grated the cheese.

Assembling it is simple too. I first lightly greased the dish with olive oil, just a drop or two, put a little red sauce on the bottom (you can start with white if you want) and arranged the first layer of lasagna sheets. Then comes the red sauce, white sauce and grated cheese, then lasagna sheets again, red sauce, white sauce and grated cheese, and so on until you use up all the ingredients.

I preheated the oven to 200°C, covered the dish with aluminum foil, but just to be safe, I also put some baking paper underneath it so the cheese wouldn't stick and baked it for about 40 minutes. Then I uncovered it and put it back in the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the cheese got that golden-yellow, crispy crust.

And that's itttt, it would be good to let it sit for at least a little while before cutting it so that it cuts nicely, even just for about 10 minutes. Trust me, it won't get cold and the pieces will look much nicer. We were in a hurry that day because we had to prepare lunch for the workers who came to install our interior doors, so the pieces weren't exactly "picture-perfect".

The important thing is that we ate it all and everyone liked it. I hope you will too if you decide to make it following this recipe.

And if you have any suggestions on how to make it even better, feel free to write to me, I'd love to learn!

Buon appetito! <3