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Monday 20 June 2016

Sophie's Lasagne



Say hello to lovely Sophie who is going to try making some things for the blog. She is unable to eat gluten so all the recipes we do will be gluten-free. However, as I spend a considerable amount of my life cooking low-carb meals a lot of things I make are inherently gluten-free anyway so that makes everything quite stress free.

Making lasagne is actually relatively easy. It has three elements – a meat or vegetable sauce, a white (or béchamel) sauce and pasta. As you are unable to eat gluten we will use gluten free pasta and cornflour to thicken the white sauce, but anyone else following this blog can use regular pasta and plain flour. I like to add chicken livers to boost the flavour of the meat sauce but you can leave them out if you prefer.

Serves 4 (ish - depending on appetite)

2 tbsp oil 

1 onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 stick of celery, finely chopped

250g minced beef
250g minced pork

50g chicken livers, trimmed and finely chopped (optional)
100ml milk

100ml red wine

400ml passata
1 star anise
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
3 tbs cornflour
600ml milk
2 bay leaves
grated nutmeg
50g butter cut into small cubes


About 9 sheets gluten free lasagne (depending on the size of the sheets and your dish - you'll need 3 layers of pasta)

100g grated parmesan

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan and fry the onion over a low to medium heat until softened. Add the carrot and continue to cook for 5 minutes, then add the celery and cook for another 2 minutes. Turn up the heat, add the minced beef and pork and stir and fry until the meat is no longer pink, then stir in the chopped livers and cook for another 3 minutes.

Add the milk and allow to bubble away until it has been absorbed by the meat then pour in the wine, passata, star anise and the herbs. Season with salt and pepper then bring to a simmer. Cover the pan partially with a lid, turn the heat down, and leave to simmer very gently for 2 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

To make the béchamel use 3 tbs of the milk and mix with the cornflour to make a loose paste then bring the rest of the milk, the bay leaves and a good grating of fresh nutmeg to the boil. Reduce the heat to very low and whisk in the cornflour paste followed by the butter. Season and simmer gently for about 5 minutes until thickened.

To assemble the lasagne, take a deep, wide dish and coat the bottom with a third of the meat sauce, topped with a quarter of the béchamel (I tend to just blob it around using a spoon), and a layer of pasta. You can break the pasta into pieces to make it fit but the odd gap here or there won't make a big difference. Repeat two more layers, and then top the last layer of pasta with the rest of the béchamel and sprinkle over the parmesan. Cook for 40-45 minutes, until golden and bubbling.
Allow to rest for at least 20 minutes before serving – lasagne is nicer served warm rather than screamingly hot and giving it time to rest allows everything to firm up slightly. It is possibly even better the next day. In a toasted sandwich.


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