Beef Lasagna with Homemade Bechamel

One of the best lasagna recipes you could make. This is not your ordinary beef lasagna, this is a restaurant quality dish made right in your own home. It is the cheesiest and most flavourful lasagna you will ever have. 

Lasagna is only of those dinners that instantly just solves all the problems in the world for us. I know we have all just thrown together a jar of bolognese with lasagna noodles and called that lasagna. This beef lasagna recipe here… she is the lasagna that rules them all. The slice you would find yourself paying a substantial amount for in the restaurant. 

But as with our prawn cocktail we are looking at those dishes that you can bring into the comfort of your own home. Now this dish is a very simple dish to pull together so do not get overwhelmed by the recipe card. If you are looking for something Italian but still perhaps less involved this Spaghetti Bolognese is out of this world. 

How to make the best beef Lasagne / lasagna

To us to make the best lasagna is to focus with making the building blocks to make the lasagna from scratch. I know that that word can sometimes terrify people, ‘scratch’, but our goals with SKC is to show that you in fact do not need to fear this word, or recipes that include a homemade ragu and cheesy creamy bechamel sauce. Because really, these make the absolutely best lasagna.

We are here to walk you through it and you’ll be finding yourself surprised just how simple it really is to make these type of dishes. 

Lasagna or Lasagne?

Random fact of the day. Turns out lasagne is the plural for lasagna!

This is something that we have never realised until we began writing this post. It’s is actually about a 50/50 on what we search for on this Island. Some are search and spelling it as Lasagna and others as Lasagne. We have always called with Lasagna in our family without any thought.. But many also call it Lasagne to it seems! Whatever you want to call it… it’s delicious. 

How to Layer Lasagna

1. First start my adding a layer of prepared ragu on the bottom of the tray.
2. Followed by a layer of bechamel and a liberal sprinkle of parmesan and torn up mozzarella.
3. Add a single layer of lasagna pasta noodles. (DO NOT layer pasta sheets on top of one another)
4. Layer ragu on top of pasta noodles, then the bechamel, parmesan, mozzarella andddddddd repeat. 
5. Once you’ve have filled the tray finish with a thick layer of bechamel and EXTRA parmesan, mozzarella and even some gruyere if you have it. This is not our diet type of meal so more cheese the better. 😉

How long to bake Lasagna

As long as you pre-soaked your lasagna pasta sheets you will want to Bake it at 180degrees for 30-40minutes. If the top of your lasagne ends up browning too much you can simply cover it with a bit of tin foil to prevent it from browning anymore. NOTE: Be careful to not PRESS the foil on top of the lasagne as the cheese may stick so just be careful. 

Can you freeze cooked lasagna

One of the reasons I might absolutely adore lasagna is that is freezes beautifulllyyyyyyy. It really does a wonderfulll job freezing. 

You can freeze the entire lasagna pan or slice it into individual servings. Store into a freeze-safe food container and wrap in plastic wrap then foil. You can freeze lasagna up to 3months. 

From frozen: Remove plastic wrap but cover with tin foil and pop it into the oven at 190C for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for another 20-30 minutes until the cheese is bubbling again. 

So whether its lasagna or lasagne in your family I think we can all agree on one thing…. We all need a slice of this in our lives. Be sure to join our mailing list for more tips and recipes that you can make at home. We plan to begin sharing tips and even exclusive cooking content with our readers first. 

OTHER RECIPES YOU MAY ENJOY:

• Enjoy this Chocolate Biscuit cake for dessert after.
• Beef Stroganoff
• Easy Pasta Carbonara
• Spinach Sausage Lasagna Roll-ups

Beef Lasagna with Bechamel

Simple Kitchen Cooking

One of the best lasagna recipes you could make. This is not your ordinary beef lasagna, this is a restaurant quality dish made right in your own home. It is the cheesiest and most flavourful lasagna you will ever have. 

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45 mins

Cook Time 3 hrs

Total Time 3 hrs 45 mins

Course Main Dishes

Cuisine Italian

Servings 8

Calories 997 kcal

Ingredients

  

For the Ragu:

• 2 kg of Beef Mince
• 3 carrots peeled and diced
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 3 large white onions sliced or diced
• 1 head of garlic halved skin
• small bunch of Rosemary & Sage
• 300 ml of Red wine
• 2 Tablespoons off tomato paste
• 2 jars of Passata & the equivalent of water
• Salt & Pepper
• oil for fgrying around 2 tbsp

For the Bechamel:

• 100 g of Butter
• 100 g of flour
• Salt & pepper
• 1/2 tsp of Nutmeg
• 600/650 ml of Milk
• 60/80 g of Freshly grated Parmesan or gruyere

For layering:

• 2 balls of mozzarella torn up
• 250 g lasagna pasta sheets
• extra parmesan

Instructions

 

• Begin by preparing all ingredients, including removing the mince from the fridge so it reaches near enough to room temp ( this prevents the meat from sweating when it hits the pan
• Lightly season the mince
• In a large pan /pot heat the oil ( medium heat) and add all of the veg, herbs and season it.
• Reduce the heat, cover the pot and let the veg sweat until soft..... stir occasionally for around 8 mins
• Heat a separate non stick pan, leave it dry ( no oil ) and sear the mince until it gets slightly brown on each side do not stir it a lot
• Tip the mince into the veg and stir to combine let it "get to know each other" for around 4 mins
• Then turn up heat slightly and pour in wine let it simmer for a few mins before adding the paste
• Make sure that you give each stage a few minutes to cook before adding the next step
• Finally adding the passata followed by the water.
• Bring the pot up to the boil ( stirring continuously) then turn it right down to simmer. Cook it on a low simmer for anywhere between 1 1/2 to 2 hours
• When the ragu is almost ready you can prepare the bechamel
• Preparing bechamel: In a large heavy bottomed sauce pan melt your butter on a low heat
• Stir in the flour and cook for around 1.5 mins
• Slowly pour in the milk, whisking all the time to prevent lumps. Add in nutmeg and season to your taste
• Bring it just up to a simmer for around 5 mins then take it off the heat and stir in cheese
• Keep it in a warm place until you begin the layering process.
• The layering: Allow the ragu to cool slightly put the pasta sheets in cold water to slightly soften them.*
• Spread a layer of ragu on the bottom of tray
• Followed by a layer of bechamel sprinkle some parmesan and torn up mozzarella on each layer of bechamel
• Then a thin layer of pasta, do not layer pasta sheets on top of one another
• Continue the process until you have fill the tray, finishing with a thick layer of bechamel and lots of grated Parmesan / mozzarella / gruyere
• Bake at 180 degrees for 30/40 mins

Notes

* Skip this step if you are using fresh lasagna sheets.

Keyword beef lasagna