DAY 7: ZZ'S FAVORITE LASAGNE...

And on the 7th day when God saw all he had done , He rested....
But since I'm not God i was up at 6am , also because i could not sleep and started making all my preparations for the lasagne, i love Sundays, its family time , good food time and lazying around time, and so decided to make a one dish meal, and so picked up this recipe from my favorite Italian cook book beause Zeke and Zene love this so here's presenting ,

ZZ'S favorite Lasagne in the whooole world

Bechamel sauce (white sauce)
500 ml milk 2 bay leaves
3 cloves
1 small onion
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
full fat cream
a pinch grated nutmeg
butter

Put the milk in a non stick pan over a medium flame and add to it the bay leaves , cloves, onion, well i also added garlic to it and 2 peppercorns because i always do when i make basic white sauce, then after it is well boiled and you can smell the beautiful aroma of the spices , take it off the fire and strain and keep aside, then butter a pan, stir in the flour n cook for a about a minute , then gradually stir in the flavoured milk bit by bit, then put some fresh cream in it (that collects on top of the milk after you boil it or a packet variety ), i always stir in some cheese , but u don't really have to , then take it off the flame and season with salt and nutmeg.

Ragu Sauce
olive oil
2 garlic pods
butter
2 large onions chopped
4 celery sticks
175 gms chicken bacon
500 gms minced lamb
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp flour
400 gms chopped tomatoes
150 ml chicken or meat stock
150 ml red wine
2 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg salt and pepper


Heat a little olive oil and butter in a non stick vessel, add the onions and chicken bacon and cook for about 5-7 minutes.
Then stir in the garlic and the mince meat and cook till it loses its colour, then increase the heat a bit add the tomato puree , i always add i dash of ketchup, the flour and cook for 2 minutes.
Stir in the tomatoes , stock and wine.
season with oregano and nutmeg, cover and let it simmer for 45 minutes , its now ready to use.

I love the delicate smell of nutmeg , I also add basil leaves , because to me no Italian food is complete without basil.
Then pre heat your oven to 200 degrees for half an hour .
Take a beautiful oven friendly dish and arrange sheets of lasagne at the bottom , then i put a layer of mashed potatoes because the kids love it, over that a generous helping of the ragu sauce , i also add a layer of spinach, some white sauce over it and grated mozzarella cheese, then over it another layer of the lasagne . i do not add any more layers of mashed potato, so lasagne , white sauce,spinach , cheese , ragu sauce.
i finish it with one last layer of lasagne, white sauce ,spinach some basil and then the mozzarella cheese and bake it at 170 degrees for about 40 minutes or till the sauce bubbles and the cheese turns a nice golden brown and dark in some places.

It's always fun to eat a lasagne straight out of the oven, and that's just what we did , put a little mat out on our terrace and sat down and bit into our Sunday "lasagne", it feels so good when the kids eat with huge smiles on their faces and ask for seconds .
Making lasagne is tedious , but the end result is yummy.
So today on the 7th day of my cooking "ZZ'S FAVORITE LASAGNE" from "Maria's kitchen"
P.S. GOD i now want to sleep, stuffed and happy....