Hi lovely people! Okay we are going to make the most delicious lasagna al forno
Right a classic, people love lasagna and I want to give you a really solid recipe
that will take care of you, your family, your friends, and give you deliciousness
every single time. We're gonna do a lasagna al forno with a meat ragu, okay
let's start with the meat and let's start with a smoked pancetta
So just finely slice the bacon, so in the pan we go everyone knows that good
things happen when you smell a nice bit of smoky bacon. Then what I would suggest
is putting in your bay leaves in with the garlic, so as that's frying off I'm
just gonna take the leaves off the rosemary like that. This act of making a
ragu I love the ritual of it, so now we go in
with the carrots, the celery, and the lovely red onions. Okay so the veggies
have had about five minutes and if you just push the veggies to one side, let's
introduce the meat. So in with the pork first, normally my favourite cut is minced
shoulder of pork and then beef. Then we break up the meat, let the water and
moisture cook away and then we'll get colour on that minced meat. So there you
go lovely people, we've had a nice 10 minutes of frying a nice little
seasoning of salt I'm gonna be quite generous with pepper, and then a lovely
old-school spice nutmeg. So you want to grate in about half a nutmeg, so at this
stage in the game we're gonna go in with two glasses of red wine, small glasses
So we go in with the lentils, you will never tell the difference between the lentil
and the meat right, it becomes like one so the lentils have gone in then some nice
big fat plum tomatoes fill up your tins with water and pour this in like that
right we're gonna let that sit for about an hour and a half. So look the ragu has
been bubbling away beautifully for about an hour and a half, and it's gonna carry
on cooking for a little bit. I'm gonna make a white sauce, I'm gonna put 50
grams of butter in a pan, I want to take it up a little bit. So I've got a lovely leek here the
flavour you get from leeks it's so beautiful, so in the sizzling butter
Now I'm going to go in with 4 medium heat tablespoons of flour stir that in, and
then in with a litre of milk so that will come to the boil
and then I'm simply gonna blend it until it's smooth. I'm gonna angle the pan like
this, get it deep in there. The great thing about that is it will amplify the
flavour as well as give you that lovely silky consistency. So look in here we're
gonna get cheese happening, so of course cheddar cheese is not traditional
in an Italian sense, but I actually tend to use cheddar
when I make my lasagnas regardless, just because I like it. So bit of parmesan goes in
now and then the curveball, the smoked mozzarella you can get it in the
supermarkets have a look for it it's there. Don't overuse it you know, be
subtle with it look at that guys come on.
So look how gorgeous, gooey and stringy that white sauce is it's gonna be amazing.
So now is the time to build a lasagna, so at this point in time what I
do do is just look at my ragu and because it's been cooking down and
because everyone's pans are a little bit different, you might just want to add a
little bit of water so it's kind of not too dry, okay.
So first up, we'll take 2 nice ladles of our ragu into here, take our
little bits of pasta I prefer to use the fresh ones. Then we go in with a little
bit of the white sauce
and keep repeating until you run out of ingredients.
So look this is the last bit of white sauce and then we'll finish it with a last little kiss of cheese
That my friends is gonna be an amazing lasagna. So in the oven it's going to go
for about 40 minutes / 45 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit),
and that will be a fine dinner for a bunch of fine people.
So let's cook it
So good! Oh come on! Come and have a look at this, so there you go it's
just cooked into the most beautiful thing, normally I would let this sit for
5-10 minutes just to let the pasta sort of relax and then you get a nicer little
slice, but I can't be bothered to wait, I'm too excited
Come on, you can do this
Yes, yes, yes
Phwoar
So we can sit here romanticizing and talking all day, or we get some knives
and forks and get stuck in. I like the ratio between the pasta and the ragu
The white sauce oozey, stringy, but full of flavour more
flavour than a normal white sauce give it a go
So guys what you waiting for
get the recipe, get shopping and get cooking, and enjoy a humble delicious
comforting lasagna go for it get stuck in.