Luxurious Lasagne

The perfect dish for the perfect cosy evening

Occasionally when it's blowing a gale outside and I'm all warm snuggled up on the sofa I begin to think about food (ok, not occasionally, more like every minute of the day, whether I'm inside or out, whether it's night or day) and I turn to the idea of comfort food. My favourite cook, Nigella Lawson was particularly fond of this idea, choosing to eat particular foods which matched her individual moods, but more importantly were surprisingly comforting. Because of this, I am happy to say I feel accepted in the world of cooking to comfort eat as much as I possibly can, whether it be smooth mashed potatoes, crispy bacon or an indulgent chocolate cake.


This particular dish conjures up the epitome of comfort and cosy nights. I would definately call this comfort food as you may find yourself going back for seconds and even thirds without feeling the slightest bit guilty!


This dish should serve about 12 but if your starving its going to feed even less!





You'll need:


340g lean ground beef
455g sweet italian sausage
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 can / 6 ounces tomato paste
364g canned tomato sauce
120ml water
25g white sugar
1g dried basil leaves
1g fennel seeds
2g italian seasoning
20g salt
0.5g ground black pepper
15g chopped fresh parsley
12 lasagne noodles
455g ricotta cheese
1 egg
3g salt
340g mozzarella cheese, sliced
75g grated parmesan cheese





It may take some time to make but believe me it's worth it and you'll be gonig back for seconds, thirds and maybe even fourths!

What you need to do is:

Cook the sausage, beef and the garlic over a medium heat until well browned. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and the water. Season with the sugar, the basil leaves, the fennel seeds, the italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer while covered for about 1 and a half hours, make sure you are stirring occasionally. I'm sure by this stage you are wanting to sit down with a large glass of wine, and now is the perfect opportunity to because next all you've got to do is to bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil and cook the lasagne noodles for about 8-10 minutes. After your sit down and on condition that you haven't drunk a whole bottle of wine you'll need to drain the noodles and rinse them in cold water.
In the mixing bowl you have to combine the ricotta cheese with the egg, remaining parsley and half a teaspoon of salt. Preheat your oven for 375 0F. Spread one and a half cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish and arrange six of the noodles lengthwise over the meat sauce (understandably 6 noodles is rather a peculiar amount but it gives a really good texture once you've repeated the process). Spread with half of the ricotta cheese mixture and top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon one and a half cup of meat sauce over the mozzarella and sprinkle with a quarter cup of parmesan cheese. Repeat the layers and then pop the rest of the mozzarella and parmesan on the top. (It should look really fat and yummy now and although it's hard your going to have to wait to cook it before you dig in, maybe more wine would be advisable?) Lastly you'll need to cover the dish with foil, but make sure it doesn't touch the cheese or it will end up sticking and becoming gloopy! Bake in the oven for 25 minutes and then remove the foil and bake for another 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before you serve it and then get eating!!