One of the most loved foods in the world is finally here! This is a beautiful Italian Lasagna with layers of slow cooked Ragù Bolognese and Besciamella cheese sauce. Though patience is required, it is quite straight forward to make as you will see in the recipe video!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Traditional Italian lasagna
Lasagna, lasagna. How I love thee! It is possibly one of the most loved foods in the whole wide world, and understandably so. There is just something so sentimental about lasagna, so comforting. It evokes images of of gatherings with family and friends all around the world. It is the sort of food that is like a big warm hug, and so more-ish you want to keep digging in until you burst.
Lasagna just rocks. Full stop.
And if you’ve never tried a homemade one before, that needs to change! If you can make spaghetti bolognese, you can make lasagne. It just requires a wee bit more patience.
OK, bit more than a wee bit more patience. But it’s totally worth it. A real homemade Lasagna is epic.
Homemade Lasagna – three parts
There are 3 components to making lasagna:
The meat sauce;
The white sauce – creamy and thick, but no cream required!
Assembling and baking.
What goes in lasagna
The Meat Sauce is basically just like Bolognese. You need:
Onion, garlic, carrot and celery – for the flavour base, a soffrito;
Beef
Canned tomato and tomato paste
Red wine – for extra flavour!
Seasonings – beef bouillon cubes (stock cubes), bay leaves, thyme, oregano, Worcestershire sauce
For the white sauce, you need:
butter
flour
milk
cheese
For assembling, you need:
lasagna sheets – preferably fresh (from the fridge section of grocery stores) but dried works just fine too
cheese!
How to make lasagne
See? I told you the meat sauce is just like making Bolognese! Though here, we cook that meat sauce long and slow, to develop incredible rich flavours and make the beef melt-in-your-mouth tender.
Layering up!
And here’s how you layer it up:
Smear a bit of meat sauce on the base first – stops the lasagna sheets from sliding around;
Layer 1 – top with meat sauce, bit of white sauce
Layer 2 – lay out more lasagna sheets, then top with more meat sauce and more white sauce
Layer 3 – repeat again, lasagna sheets, meat sauce then white sauce; and
Topping – cover with lasagna sheets, pour over remaining white sauce then sprinkle with cheese.
Pop it in the oven, and THIS is what comes out….
That moment when you cut into the golden bubbly cheesy top and you serve up a piping hot, oozy, meaty slice of lasagna….
That’s a little bit of food heaven, right there.
Lasagna first timers, the recipe video below will be super helpful. ❤️ Trust me, you got this. – Nagi xx
PS Also happens to be one of the nicest food gifts you can make for someone. Freezes 100% perfect, and is a huge step up from the usual simple casseroles. Right? 😉
Watch How To Make It
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Lasagna
Ingredients
Ragu Bolognese:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion , finely chopped (white, yellow or brown)
- 1 medium carrot , peeled and very finely diced
- 1 celery stick , very finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 kg / 2 lb beef mince (ground beef) (Note 1)
- 800g / 28 oz canned crushed tomato
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1 cup pinot noir red wine , or other dry red wine (Note 2)
- 3 beef bouillon cubes , crumbled
- 2 bay leaves , dried or fresh
- 1/2 tsp EACH dried thyme and oregano
- 2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 – 2 tsp sugar (if needed – Note 3)
- 1/2 tsp salt and black pepper
Cheese Sauce (Besciamella):
- 60g / 4 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup flour
- 4 cups milk , preferably full fat but low fat ok
- 2 cups gruyere or Colby cheese , shred yourself (or cheddar, Monterey Jack, OR 1 cup / 100g shredded parmesan) (Note 4)
- Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
- Salt and pepper
Lasagna:
- 350g/ 12 oz fresh lasagna sheets (or 250g/8oz dried) (Note 5)
- 1 1/2 cups (tightly packed) mozzarella cheese , shred yourself (Note 4)
- Finely chopped basil or parsley , for garnish (optional)
Instructions
Ragu:
- Heat oil in a large heavy based pot over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, celery and carrots. Cook for 10 minutes until softened and sweet – they should not brown (if they do, turn heat down).
- Add beef, turn heat up and cook the beef, breaking it up as you go.
- Once the beef has all turned brown, add the remaining Ragu ingredients EXCEPT the sugar.
- Stir then adjust the heat so it is bubbling very gently. Place the lid on and cook for 1.5 – 2 hours, stirring every now and then, then remove the lid and simmer for 30 minutes.
- The ragu is ready when the meat is really tender and the sauce has thickened and is rich – see video for consistency (Note 6). Adjust salt and pepper to taste, and add sugar if required (Note 3)
Cheese Sauce:
- Warm milk up in a saucepan (optional – just makes sauce thicken faster).
- In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat. Add flour and mix constantly for 1 minute.
- Pour about 1 cup of the milk in, mixing as you go to incorporate into the flour mixture. Once mostly lump free, add remaining milk. Use a whisk if needed to make it lump free.
- Turn heat up to medium high. Stir occasionally at first then regularly after a few minutes until sauce thickens – about 5 – 8 minutes. It should coat the back of the wooden spoon.
- Remove from heat, add cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix until the cheese is melted. The Sauce should be thick but still easily pourable – the consistency of heavy cream (you need to be able to drizzle it over the Ragu when layering – see video). If it’s too thick, add a splash of water or milk.
Assemble:
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Use a 33 x 22 x 7 cm / 13 x 9 x 2.5″ baking dish.
- Smear a bit of Ragu on the base, then cover with lasagna sheets. Tear sheets to fit.
- Spread over 2 1/2 cups of Ragu (enough to cover sheets), then drizzle over 1 cup of Cheese Sauce.
- Top with lasagna sheets (Note 7). Spread with another 2 1/2 cups of Ragu, then 1 cup of Cheese Sauce. Top with lasagna sheets then repeat 1 more time.
- Top with a 4th layer of lasagna sheets, then pour over the remaining Cheese Sauce.
- Sprinkle with Mozzarella, then bake for 25 minutes or until golden and bubbling.
- Stand for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting and serving, garnished with basil or parsley if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life Of Dozer
He just sprawls across the floor when he sleeps. No curling up cutely, chin on paw, like all those cute doggy pics you see all over the internet. Nope, this one just collapses and sprawls out right in my line of path (straight line from kitchen to table is over him – of course).
Loved this! Started cooking before I read the ‘slow cook’ section.. but I sped it up and it was still delicious.
Another hit!
Another beautiful recipe! I can’t use onion due to my husbands allergy but subbed with the green part of a couple of spring onions and added a couple of handfuls of chopped mushrooms as I didn’t have any celery. Had to use instant lasagne sheets as I’m on a remote cattle station but the sauce was plenty juicy enough to cook the sheets perfectly. Absolutely delicious!!
A question, please. I sometimes cook for a community group, often using Nagi’s recipes. This is usually for 30 people – and they have always gone well. I have had problems with scaling up. The highest available guide is for 20, but when I apply the system to cater for 30, I always have too much, particularly sauces. Corn flour time. What might be the best scaling system to minimise waste?
I love this.
Lasagna is my favorite food and it has been my mission to make the perfect ( according to my tastebuds) version and this is the recipe i have used and tweaked with secret additions to achieve my result. Im very a happy girl .
Best lasagna ever! Don’t skip the 2hr magic of cooking the ragu down. Deliciousness in every mouthful ❤️❤️
Absolutely delish, filling and quite rich. I followed the recipe to the “T”. Only two of us and the rest, I will freeze in single portions.
A great, easy to follow and delicious recipe.
I have allergies to garlic and onion , so I amended the recipe:
– celery, carrot, and capsicum
– asafoetida, 1 teaspoon
Having made this twice now from this site and also from ‘Cafe Delights’ mama’s best lasagna recipe, I can say the the latter is a lot better. Not sure why but I’ve made it 4 times now and the verdict is in. I adore most of the recipes here I really do, but on the lasagna side of things I suggest go to the other one and just try it as once suggested here by another person.
thanks for the great article, keep up the good work
I made this gluten and dairy free and it was still really good!! To make it GF I used GF lasagne sheets and cornflour instead of flour and for DF I used vegan cheese, nutlex, and almond milk, but with the cheese sauce I added nutritional yeast to make it more cheesy. Really great recipe!!!
I made this for dinner tonight. It is the best lasagne I have ever eaten. Thanks Nagi. 😊
This béchamel sauce recipe is absolutely fantastic. It really elevated the whole dish!
Best lasagna I’ve ever had. I made it GF by using corn flour in the cheese sauce (1 tbsp per 250ml milk) and GF lasagna sheets. Thank you,
This is the best lasagna, everything about it is completely perfect, including the measurements of everything which is so helpful. The only change I make is I substitute half the beef mince for Italian Pork Sausages from the butcher. It’s amazing the next day. Great for freezing, making it ahead and freezing. Just all the things. Nagi nailed it!
Nagi, this was stellar. I did use pre-shredded cheese, soz, but there was nothing noticeably amiss with the texture of the finished product. Great stuff!
Omg
This was absolutely amazing
My partner won’t eat store bought lasagna
So
I gave this recipe a try
Nagi what a beautiful meal
Put this one on the list for regular dinner
Thank you Nagi for all your recipes
You’re website site is my go to for a lot of recipes I Cook
Nagi, thank you so much for sharing this fantastic Lasagna!
Great lasagne. This was the first lasagne I’ve cooked. It was for a lunch with friends I was hosting and everyone said it was one of the best lasagnes they’ve had.
Obviously there are variables with cooking a dish, in this instance I felt my mince still had too much moisture (though I wasn’t as I had never cooked it before). But I ended up using a spoon to skim extra moisture out. Of the mince. It ended up pefect. (I prepared the mince the day before).
Scrumptious:)
Has anyone questioned the cooking time here? This is a large volume of food to be hot in the middle for the cooking time. Also barely fits the dish despite using the exact recipe and baking dish size.
Not sure I understand your question but the meat is cooked for over 2 hours, the final cooking time of 25 mins is to melt the cheese on top and heat through.