Lasagne to fool the carnivores

I'm doing this one totally from memory so don't follow it too closely. Some recipes, and a good tomato sauce is one of these, really should be a matter of doing what feels right anyway. Keep taste testing. 

Ingredients 

Green Grocer 

Herbs - A few sprigs of oregano is the go if you can get it fresh and a big handful of chopped parsley. 

2 large onions 

1 small onion 

2-3 carrots 

3 celery stalks 

1 head of garlic 

1 lemon 

Dry Store 

2 big tins of tomato (next size up from the 400g ones, I can't remember how big they are right now) 

2x75g packets of TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) 

4 bay leaves 

1 teaspoon cloves 

6 tablespoons milk powder 

100g flour 

6 tbsp olive oil 

1 LARGE glass of dry red wine (it'll get smaller before you use it) 

Fridge 

Cheese and plenty of it. 

300g of good melting cheese like mozzarella or a lightly flavoured cheddar. 

100g of parmesan. (These quantities sound a bit light-on to me now that I think about it) 

100g unsalted butter 

Method 

You need to prepare a bechamel sauce (cheese sauce) and a tomato sauce. If you're not sure of the timing, then do the bechamel last because it's easier to handle when its still hot. For the tomato sauce/bolognaise:

• When making a large amount like this, I usually chop the vegetables in a food processor. Just wash and peel the onion, carrot and celery and whizz them up together. This combination of veges is known as mirepoix (meer-eh-pwar).
• Cook the veges in a large pot in the olive oil. Seasoning with salt at this stage gives a better result than just adding salt afterwards.
• Peel and chop the garlic finely and add it to the pot once the mirepoix has softened a bit. Don't add it with the other veges as it will burn.
• Keep the heat high. A bit of caramelisation is good as it will result in a more richly flavoured sauce with a deeper colour.
• When everything is softened nicely and a bit brown, pour in the wine (it should sizzle resoundingly) and scrape any good bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. This is known as 'de-glazing' the pan.
• Cook the wine until it is almost all evaporated. This ensures that the alcohol is all burned off. It can result in a bitter sauce if this doesn't occur.
• Add in the tomatoes. I buy whole peeled tomatoes and crush them in a mouli. If you don't have one of these wonderful machines, either buy chopped tomatoes or crush the whole ones in your hand as they go in (it feels magnificent but can get messy).
• Add oregano and 2 bay leaves. For the more adventurous, add a little lemon zest as well.
• You may need to add a little water as well depending on how juicy the tomatoes are.
• Put a lid on the pot, bring it to the boil and then simmer gently for at least an hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes. No more than a simmer or you will burn the sauce. There should be a noticeable bubble every second or so rising to the surface and bursting aromatically.
• Add your prepared TVP for the last five minutes.
• Finally, taste the sauce. If it is bitter, then add a teaspoon or two of sugar and some lemon juice (yes, this helps eliminate bitterness). It may also need a little more salt.

For the TVP

• Follow the directions on the packet 

[Edit Jan 2021: I've found a better method for using TVP. Look out for a new TVP Bolognaise recipe on this blog]

For the bechamel sauce:

• Make an onion clouté by peeling the small onion and 'nailing' several bay leaves to it with cloves.
• Bring to the boil 1 litre of water with the clouté in it.
• Let the clouté steep in the water for 10 minutes and then remove and discard.
• Melt the butter in another pot and stir in the flour. This is called a roux (roo)
• Cook the roux a little bit and then start slowly adding some of the cloutè stock a ladle at a time while stirring. In fact, you'll need to give it a beating sometimes. Don't add any more liquid until the last addition is fully incorporated without any lumps.
• Keep stirring and adding more. Each time, the sauce should thicken up suddenly into a paste when it hits the boiling point. Keep adding until the sauce reaches a nice consistency. This may not require all of the stock and may require more - get in touch with your sauce. If it needs more, you can just add hot water.
• When the consistency is right, remove the pot from the heat, add the milk powder and about two thirds of the grated cheeses. Stir this in well.

Assembly

• Preheat the oven to 200°C
• Start with a thin layer of the bolognaise sauce in the base of the tray.
• Place lasagne sheet over the sauce. It doesn't have to be perfect. Some gaps and overlaps are fine.
• Now put a layer of bechamel down over the pasta. If you intend to use it all (you won't really be able to tell until you've made this recipe a few times) then you should put down about a third of the sauce.
• Then another layer of bolognaise.
• Pasta.
• Another third of the bechamel.
• Bolognaise.
• Pasta.
• Finish with the rest of the bechamel and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
• Bake in the oven for about an hour or until the cheese is nice and brown and you can poke a skewer into it easily.

Notes Slice it up in the tray. If you have an egg flip handy, cut the lasagne into squares the same size as the egg flip's edge. This makes it easy to use the egg flip to get out of the tray. Serve with a crisp salad and a glass of the wine you used in the cooking. Wrap individual serves in plastic wrap and freeze for an easy meal. Use left over bolognaise as stuffing for pies or reheated and tipped over spaghetti.