Lasagna

My first lasagna was when I was a kid and we used to go to so many restaurants during the summer while we enjoyed vacationing on the island of Hvar. There was a small Italian restaurant in the town of Stari grad with wooden tables and benches where you can sit with the family and enjoy their incredible pizza. My first instinct told me to order probably the most usual pizza in Croatia – mushrooms, ham and cheese, but decided to try something new. Seems like as a kid I also liked to try out new dishes as I do to this day. Lasagna which I ordered blew my mind! But after coming home my mother didn’t know how to make them and that’s where my sister rose up to the occasion and prepared lasagna on a monthly basis for our family dinner. She was the one who showed my younger brother how to make them, so he became the “lasagna man” in our family.

For a few years my brother perfected the recipe my sister gave him and it seemed like the dish became more flavourful and delicious every time he made it. Everything was great but then ho got a job at the seaside and before he left, he gave me his lasagna recipe. Today I’m sharing it with all of you reading. I’m happy to share a recipe that has so much of my family in it, which means a lot to me. I hope you’ll like the recipe, give it a try and share some feedback!

Enjoy and happy cooking!

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Preparation: 35 min

Cook time: 1 h 15 min

Servings: 8-10

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Ingredients

• 20 lasagna noodles
• 800 g ground beef
• 100 g bacon, chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 450 g crushed tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp Tabasco sauce
• 200 g tomato sauce
• pinch of sugar
• 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 2 tsp parsley
• 320 g mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 200 g Parmesan cheese, grated
• 40 g butter
• 200 g all-purpose flour
• 750 ml milk
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• salt & pepper to taste

How to

1. Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat. Add flour and simmer until light brown. Remove from heat. Heat milk in a large pot seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg. When it starts to boil add flour & butter mixture and stir. Cook until you get a thick sauce.
2. Place bacon in a large pan and fry it over medium heat. When the bacon is crispy add onion and pressed garlic and let it simmer for a few minutes. Add ground beef and stir, cook over medium heat. When the meat is cooked add tomato paste, tomato sauce, Tabasco sauce and crushed tomatoes. Season with a pinch of sugar, chopped basil, salt, pepper and parsley. Cook the sauce for about 10 minutes, until you get a rich flavourful sauce.
3. Preheat the oven to 200° C.
4. You can use these medium-sized ceramic bowls as I did, or you can use a large baking tray. Nevertheless the process is the same. Spread some Bechamel sauce over the bowl, next place lasagna noodles over it so they cover the whole bowl. Spread some beef-tomato sauce over the lasagna and Bechamel sauce over it again. Repeat the process one more time so you have layers in this order: Bechamel-lasagna noodle-beef sauce-Bechamel-lasagna noodle-beef sauce-Bechamel sauce-lasagna noodle. Finally spread the last layer of beef sauce-Bechamel and cover them with lasagna noodles. Cover the lasagna with Mozzarella cheese and grated Parmesan cheese.
5. Bake in a preheated oven covered with aluminum foil for the first 25 min. Then remove the foil and bake for another 25 min until golden and crispy and so rich in flavour. Serve warm!