Family Friendly Beef Lasagne
Closely linked with someone’s favourite Bolognese recipe, this Family Friendly Beef Lasagne is everything it needs to be. Creamy, Rich and Delicious – a total crowd pleaser for every occasion.
Can be served proudly on it’s own, but is better with a side of Garlic Bread and a light, fresh salad like Gina’s House Salad – https://www.instagram.com/p/CYpfI1igfcN/?hl=en
Made with lean mince and lots of vegetables for a healthy meal that can be enjoyed any night of the week. This lasagne can be prepped ahead and baked straight from frozen – see the FAQ below for more handy hints.
Classic Family Lasagne
Using a food processor, finely shred the onion & garlic and set aside in a bowl.
Next, shred the carrot, zucchini & celery.
If you don't have a food processor with shredding plate - you can process with a regular blade into veggie mince, shred with a box grater or just dice finely with a sharp knife.
Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a stockpot over high heat (If your pressure cooker has a Sautee function - use this!)
Add in your onion and garlic and cook until most of the juices have evaporated and it's starting to brown.
Add the next 1/2tbsp olive oil with the remaining vegetables and start the process of cooking these down until they are starting to dry out and catch the bottom of the pot.
This reduction process can take up to an hour depending on the heat of your pot, but is well worth the gain in flavour. You can generally multitask in this stage - leaving the vegetables to bubble away for a bit and coming back to stir every 10mins or so until the mixture is quite reduced - at which point you want to watch more carefully so that it doesnt burn.
Reserve your reduced vegetable mixture in the bowl from earlier and add the mince in to the pot you've been cooking in. Brown the mince and break apart with a wooden spoon or similar. Cook the mince through it's stages of releasing moisture, rendering fat and starting to brown properly. Once all of the moisture has evaporated and your mince is golden brown you can re-introduce the vegetable mixture.
Add Oregano, Salt, Pepper, Chicken Stock Powder & Mushroom Powder if available. Stir mixture to combine and add the red wine. Reduce this mixture again until it's fairly dry - cooking off all the alcohol and reducing the mixture back to roughly the level it was before the wine was added.
Add your two bay leaves and bottle of tomato passata. Stir gently to combine, being careful that the mixture might want to pop and splatter now with the addition of tomato.
If you've been preparing so far in a pressure cooker, now is the time to seal and cook for 20mins on high pressure.
Alternatively, if you have been preparing the mixture in a pot on the stove, you can reduce the temperature to low and allow to gently simmer away while you prepare the béchamel sauce. (It's also a good idea to move the pot to a rear burner / hotplate if one is available so that the mixture is out of the way.)
In a medium saucepan (one that can hold 1.5L) - measure out butter and flour.
Over a medium-high heat, whisk the butter as it melts into the flour, forming a paste. Let this bubble for a few moments before reducing the heat to low.
Whisk the butter/flour paste as you slowly add the milk. This can be done in stages - 1/3 or so at a time, as you whisk to combine.
If you dump all the milk in at once, it almost certainly will go gluggy and be a lot more difficult to whisk the lumps out.
If you have another person available to lend a hand, this process is made easier with a second person pouring the milk in a slow & steady stream as you whisk, but this isn't always possible.
Do your best to combine the two evenly and everything will be ok.
Increase the heat to medium and continue to whisk. Once the milk is hot, the mixture will start to thicken.
Season with salt and pepper and continue to whisk until the mixture is thick - like warm custard. If you like you can add a dash of powdered sage, nutmeg, garlic powder or onion powder to customize to your taste. White pepper is traditional for béchamel, however black pepper is totally fine if you don't mind seeing the black flecks in the sauce.
Set aside the sauce off the heat once thick (& turn off the stove!)
Now it's time to layer your lasagne! If you're baking straight away, now is the time to pre-heat your oven to 180oC.
In a large baking pan spread 1/3 of the mince mixture evenly over the base.
Press down a layer of pasta sheets - keeping in mind you will need 2 more layers of this much pasta, so reserve sheets accordingly.
Top the dried pasta sheets with 1/3 of the béchamel sauce mixture and spread gently with a spatula to cover the sheets completely.
Repeat the layering steps with another 1/3 mince mixture over the bechamel, press down a layer of dried lasagne sheets and top with 1/3 béchamel - smoothing the sauce with a spatula.
Add the remaining 1/3 meat mixture and gently press down your final layer of dried pasta sheets.
Pour the remaining béchamel on top and smooth with your spatula to create an even surface. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top in an even layer.
Ingredients
Directions
Using a food processor, finely shred the onion & garlic and set aside in a bowl.
Next, shred the carrot, zucchini & celery.
If you don't have a food processor with shredding plate - you can process with a regular blade into veggie mince, shred with a box grater or just dice finely with a sharp knife.
Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a stockpot over high heat (If your pressure cooker has a Sautee function - use this!)
Add in your onion and garlic and cook until most of the juices have evaporated and it's starting to brown.
Add the next 1/2tbsp olive oil with the remaining vegetables and start the process of cooking these down until they are starting to dry out and catch the bottom of the pot.
This reduction process can take up to an hour depending on the heat of your pot, but is well worth the gain in flavour. You can generally multitask in this stage - leaving the vegetables to bubble away for a bit and coming back to stir every 10mins or so until the mixture is quite reduced - at which point you want to watch more carefully so that it doesnt burn.
Reserve your reduced vegetable mixture in the bowl from earlier and add the mince in to the pot you've been cooking in. Brown the mince and break apart with a wooden spoon or similar. Cook the mince through it's stages of releasing moisture, rendering fat and starting to brown properly. Once all of the moisture has evaporated and your mince is golden brown you can re-introduce the vegetable mixture.
Add Oregano, Salt, Pepper, Chicken Stock Powder & Mushroom Powder if available. Stir mixture to combine and add the red wine. Reduce this mixture again until it's fairly dry - cooking off all the alcohol and reducing the mixture back to roughly the level it was before the wine was added.
Add your two bay leaves and bottle of tomato passata. Stir gently to combine, being careful that the mixture might want to pop and splatter now with the addition of tomato.
If you've been preparing so far in a pressure cooker, now is the time to seal and cook for 20mins on high pressure.
Alternatively, if you have been preparing the mixture in a pot on the stove, you can reduce the temperature to low and allow to gently simmer away while you prepare the béchamel sauce. (It's also a good idea to move the pot to a rear burner / hotplate if one is available so that the mixture is out of the way.)
In a medium saucepan (one that can hold 1.5L) - measure out butter and flour.
Over a medium-high heat, whisk the butter as it melts into the flour, forming a paste. Let this bubble for a few moments before reducing the heat to low.
Whisk the butter/flour paste as you slowly add the milk. This can be done in stages - 1/3 or so at a time, as you whisk to combine.
If you dump all the milk in at once, it almost certainly will go gluggy and be a lot more difficult to whisk the lumps out.
If you have another person available to lend a hand, this process is made easier with a second person pouring the milk in a slow & steady stream as you whisk, but this isn't always possible.
Do your best to combine the two evenly and everything will be ok.
Increase the heat to medium and continue to whisk. Once the milk is hot, the mixture will start to thicken.
Season with salt and pepper and continue to whisk until the mixture is thick - like warm custard. If you like you can add a dash of powdered sage, nutmeg, garlic powder or onion powder to customize to your taste. White pepper is traditional for béchamel, however black pepper is totally fine if you don't mind seeing the black flecks in the sauce.
Set aside the sauce off the heat once thick (& turn off the stove!)
Now it's time to layer your lasagne! If you're baking straight away, now is the time to pre-heat your oven to 180oC.
In a large baking pan spread 1/3 of the mince mixture evenly over the base.
Press down a layer of pasta sheets - keeping in mind you will need 2 more layers of this much pasta, so reserve sheets accordingly.
Top the dried pasta sheets with 1/3 of the béchamel sauce mixture and spread gently with a spatula to cover the sheets completely.
Repeat the layering steps with another 1/3 mince mixture over the bechamel, press down a layer of dried lasagne sheets and top with 1/3 béchamel - smoothing the sauce with a spatula.
Add the remaining 1/3 meat mixture and gently press down your final layer of dried pasta sheets.
Pour the remaining béchamel on top and smooth with your spatula to create an even surface. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top in an even layer.
Notes
Yes! This makes an excellent ready-made frozen meal and can be baked straight from frozen.
I reccomend using an alfoil pan for layering, but you can use any container that is suitable for freezer and oven use (some glass baking trays now come with freezer friendly lids!).
Stop at the step prior to oven-baking and make sure the pan or tray you are using is well sealed for freezer storage – you don’t want the contents to spill through the freezer before freezing, so be careful if you’re placing things on top of it.
Pick back up from the oven stage – just make sure it’s fully thawed and the cheese is golden brown!
Also Yes! In place of the wine you can use a mixture of 2tbsp Balsamic Vinegar, 2tbsp Worcestershire Sauce & 1tbsp Dark Soy Sauce.
This ingredient is really optional and just boosts the overall umami (meaty) flavour of the sauce.
You can substitute with approx 10g dried mushrooms, ground into a powder either with a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
If you’d prefer and have it available, you could also use Porcini salt in place of the regular salt.
Don’t stress if this ingredient isn’t available though, it’s just a nice to have flavour booster and the lasagne will still be perfectly delicious without it.
If the instructions for our Family Friendly Beef Lasagne are followed to the end of preparing the meat sauce, this can be mixed with 2-3 bags of protein pasta (375g per bag) and seperated out into 10 servings for the ultimate meal-prep weekday bolognese. Slightly undercooking the pasta makes this dish freezer friendly and allows for better re-heating.
Key Ingredients
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