A kickass beef lasagna borne out of true love.

I tend to avoid ordering lasagna when I’m eating out because they often turn out to be too try, too tart or just downright nasty. So my BF has decided that the only way to get me to appreciate Garfield’s favourite food is to make them at home.

And what do you know….he makes the meanest lasagna in town! It’s so delicious and so cheap (compared to eating out) that it really doesn’t make any sense for us to eat lasagna outside.

I know how some people might find making lasagna quite a daunting task. But truly, it’s really simple! The secret is…COMPARTMENTALISATION! Just file all the lasagna making steps into 3 categories:

(1) Cooking awesome minced beef
(2) Making white sauce
(3) Assembling lasagna.

I find that once you’ve compartmentalised cooking tasks like that, the steps would become much, much simpler and straight forward. It’s also easier to know which ingredients to prepare or take out first, which utensils to use and generally, it keeps the stress level down! Okay, it keeps my stress level down!

So here’s the recipe to my BF’s meanest lasagna in town, with step by step pictures of the man doing the works ;)

p/s: Mom, these are not my fingers…don’t freak out please.

(1)For the awesome minced beef:

• 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, grated
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 300 grams of minced beef
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
• 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2 tin of tomatoes
• 50ml milk
• Oregano
• salt
• coarse black pepper

(2)For the white sauce:

• 25 grams of butter
• 25 grams of all-purpose (plain) flour
• 300ml milk
• black pepper
• salt
• ground nutmeg
• 90 grams of cheddar cheese

(3)For the assembling

• Lasagna sheets
• Oregano
• salt
• coarse black pepper
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 2 handfuls of grated parmesan cheese

Lets begin with………(1) Making the awesome minced beef:

# – First of all, dump the grated carrots, minced onions and minced garlic into a well-oiled wok or a big pan. Stir a bit.

# – Add 2 bay leaves.

# – A dash of oregano. You can use fresh herbs of course!

# – And a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. Personally, I think Worcestershire sauce makes everything tastes better!

# – Don’t forget a dash of salt to bring all the taste out.

# – And finish of with black pepper. By now, you should probably have the the best damn tasting carrots and onions in the world!

# – Next, dump in the minced beef…

# – Some tomato puree for colours.

# – Followed by whole can of chopped plum tomatoes and a bit more….

# – Don’t forget the milk.

# – And lastly, a dash of Tabasco sauce for a good kick.

# – Stir till all the minced beef are cooked. Then, set aside.

Now, it’s time for for………(2) Making white sauce:

# – Melt the butter in a saucepan.

# – Then dump the flour in and beat with a wooden spoon….

# – Till it looks like sticky yellow dough!

# – Add 1/3 of the milk and replace the wooden spoon with a whisk.

# – Whisk till smooth.

# – Then add more milk and whisk till smooth again. Repeat till milk’s finished.

# – Now add some nutmeg for taste.

# – And cheese and black pepper. Whisk, whisk, whisk, till smooth…

# – Till it looks something like this. Smooth and smells so delicious! White sauce, DONE!

Now that we’ve gotten (1) and (2) out of the way, it’s time for………..(3) Assembling the lasagna:

# – Very importantly, remove the bay leaves from the minced beef so you won’t bite into a tough piece of leaf while eating your lasagna…

# – Then pour half of the minced beef into a 10″ roasting pan or a deep baking tray

# – Flatten the minced beef down so that the entire bottom of the pan is covered.

# – Then lay the lasagna sheets over the minced beef. Try to keep all the minced beef under the sheets.

# – If you have exposed minced beef, just break the sheets into the desired sizes ;)

# – Next, pour 1/2 of the white sauce over the lasagna sheets.

# – And spread it out till it covers everything.

# – Followed by the rest of the minced beef. Spread it out to cover everything.

# – And more lasagna sheets.

# – Now pour in the rest of the white sauce & spread it all around.

# – Slice 2 tomatoes and lay them out over the white sauce like this.

# – And NEVER EVER forget the cheese! Top off with some salt, oregano and black pepper. Stick it in a pre-heated oven at 225 degrees celcius and bake for 25 minutes.

25 minutes later….

# – A delicious looking, oh so gorgeous lasagna for 9 people!

# – Serve with homemade garlic bread.

# – There were only 4 of us, but we ate 7 portions of lasagna among us hehehe.

# – Juicy, beefy, cheesy lasagna…

# – Simply superb.

To my BF: Thanks for such a beautiful lasagna! <3 And that...is how we roll it. Happy lasagna making!