lasagne

mmmmm.... not good at taking photos, dunno if it looked scrumptious or not but it din't fail to impress my kids...they loved it, so they said...hehe.....

"Tsara'! Ameer! Batrisyia!" Time for lunch! It's Garfield's favourite food today!", you could hear the mum of the house calling her kids down for lunch yestersay afternoon. what prompted her to make lasagne, I don't know. Perhaps, the fridge was running low on stocks of chicken, fish, etc? No.. still had some chicken pieces in there, meat, yes, another portion of prawns, but no more crabs or squids, tulang rusuk, fish..time to go 'early morning'shopping again, time to stock up the freezer

Ameer asked me, have I made lasagne before? Of course I did. One time? no. Twice? No, thrice? No... many many times already but not so often. there was always a long gap in between unlike spaghetti bolognese or spaghetti goreng.

well...just felt like it, once in a while, you just didn't feel like having rice for a meal or rather you were clueless as to what to cook for the meals. It happened to me so many times, sometimes I would just stare at the freezer shelves, looking at the fish,sometimes we had bawal. merah, siakap, grut grut,terubuk, kembung, kerisi, etc and they stared right back at me!

saw the unused portion of the minced meat (i forgot what I used the other half for), some meat balls and remembered that there's still half a jar of bolognese sauce still in the fridge, balance of the spaghetti bolognese which I did last week, I still had the cheddar cheese block, still intouched and the expiry date was very near, that triggered me to make lasagne, after all, it's been awhile, so okay, let's be Italian today.I mean, yesterday.

here's the actual recipe which I obtained from couldn't remember where. Had been using this recipe since my student days:
LASAGNE
1 lb minced meat
425g tin tomatoes
1/4 pt beef stock
2 tbs tomato puree
1 onion
1 garlic
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar

Chopped and fry onion and garlic, then stir in the minced meat.then , put in the rest of the ingredients.
Bring to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.

CHEESE SAUCE:
60g/ 2 oz butter
1/3 cup plain flour
salt, pepper
pinch of nutmeg
2 cups milk
125g/ 4 oz cheddar cheese
3 tbsp grated parmesan

Melt butter ina saucepan, add, plain flour, salt,pepper, nutmeg. Blend in until smooth. Stir over heat for abt 1 minute. Gradually add milk. Stir until sauce boils and thickens
reduce heat, cook 1 minute.
Remove from heat, stir in grated cheese. Stir until cheese melts.

Layer pasta, meat sauce and cheese sauce. then repeat
Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in moderate oven 375f/190C or gas mark 5. for 30 minutes or until browned and bubbling. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Feel free to try, I did the easier way, by using the bolognese sauce which came in a bottle, forgot which brand did I use, either Pr*ego or D*lm*o

Anything Italian, pasta I mean, is just yummy.....bon jorno!
Ciao!