Italian food has to be one of my absolute favourite cuisines. I could eat pasta everyday but I know it wouldn't do my waistline any favours so we only have it 2-3 times a week.
Tonight we had lasagna!
Lasagna is definitely one of those dishes that always tastes better on the second day but I always forget to take my mince out of the freezer until the night before we're going to eat it. Usually I'll get up and make it whilst I'm eating my breakfast so it has time to sit before we eat it at tea time.
I don't always make it homemade to be honest as sometimes it is just easier to buy the jars of red lasagna and white lasagna sauce and just cook my mince and Bob's your uncle, it's done! That's what I did this morning but the kids love it and it doesn't do them any harm to have the "out the jar" stuff!
One lasagna dish I do make from scratch (apart from the pasta) is veggie lasagna. It's really tasty and instead of a béchamel sauce, I make a cheese sauce to put in between the layers of tomato, carrot, courgette, peppers and onions. I made this for
Miss C's 2nd birthday party and it was generally well received.
For the tomato sauce: -
Olive oil for cooking
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 red pepper, chopped or sliced whichever you prefer
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 courgette, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tsp caster sugar (the tomato makes it quite acidic otherwise)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
150ml vegetable stock
For the cheese sauce: -
110g cheddar cheese (a medium or mature strength)
600ml semi-skimmed milk
50g butter
1 tbsp plain flour
You also need 6 lasagna sheets
Heat the oil in a pan and then sauté the onion and leek for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Add the red pepper, carrot and courgette and fry for another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato purée and the sugar, stirring, and cook for about 1 minute. Add the chopped tomatoes and stock and simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes. If the veggies are still slightly hard don't worry because they'll cook in the oven.
To make the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a pan on a low heat. Add the flour and stir until the butter looks thick but not so much that it starts to lump. Gradually add your milk, continually stirring. Once all the milk is added, continue to stir until thick which takes about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add your cheese. 110g is about enough for me but add it to your own tastes.
This recipe fills a square ceramic dish. Start with a layer of the tomato and veggie sauce and then place 3 lasagna sheets on top. Pour some of the cheese sauce over the top and spread until the sheets are covered. Repeat the layering until the dish is full. I usually only get 2 layers because of the depth of my dish.
Cook in a 180
°C oven for about 30 - 40 minutes.
The kids love lasagna because it has some of their favourite things in it: pasta and cheese! Wee Z wasn't so keen on it at first but now he eats his up in about 5 minutes! Miss C, as usual, can't see a good plate of food go passed her.
For dessert we had homemade carrot cake which, again, tastes better on the second day. I made it last night and managed to recover it from a baking disaster involving silicone cookie cake moulds and it not being cool enough to take out of the moulds.
Wee Z clearly enjoyed his carrot cake with fudge pieces on top as he devoured his in about 30 seconds!
