Lasagna 2.0

Last night as I was coming home from a night out, to my surprise and for the first time this season it started snowing in Zagreb. It didn’t take long until all the streets and rooftops of the houses around me were covered in snow, it was like a miracle. So the next day when I woke up, I thought I must’ve been dreaming, jumped out of bed and looked  through my window, and it was there, everything was covered in a white blanket. It didn’t last long as the temperatures got higher, but the time it did, got my hopes up that we could finally have a white Christmas after years of hoping.

On a day like the one we had today here in Zagreb, there’s only one thing you can turn to – comfort food!.. and Lasagna is just that, like a textbook example of what comfort food should be. Not just that, it’s actually been some time since I last made Lasagna, and I’ve been craving it for days now.  I’m sharing this recipe in hopes that you will give it a try, and enjoy some Lasagna on a lazy weekend while spending time with the people you love, or bingeing on your favourite TV shows. I wish you an amazing weekend with lots of delicious food and fun times!

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Enjoy & happy cooking!

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Preparation: 35 min

Cook time: 1 h

Servings: 4

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Ingredients

• 20 lasagna noodles

Lasagna beef – tomato sauce:

• 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

Bechamel sauce:

• 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 & enjoy!