< Back to Main Blog Posted: Sep 2022

Lasagne Al Forno Recipe

COOK meals are perfect for when you fancy a night off cooking … something even the most passionate home cook needs now and again. But if you'd prefer to make it yourself, our recipe for a 2 portion is below. As freezer connoisseurs we'd always recommend batch cooking for the absolute best value recipe - scroll to the end for some tips.

Our shopping list for the recipe below included: Dried Lasagne Sheets, Semi-skimmed Milk, Minced Beef 12% Fat, Minced Pork 10% Fat, Onion, Celery stick, Carrot, Tomato purée, Passata, Bunch of basil, Mature Cheddar - grated. Everything else we had already.

Ingredients:

85g Dried Lasagne Sheets

Bechamel:

15g Butter
15g Plain flour
1/3 tsp English mustard
200ml Semi-skimmed Milk
Pinch Nutmeg
20g Mature Cheddar, grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Ragu Sauce:

1/3 tbsp Rapeseed or olive oil
100g Minced Beef 12% Fat
50g Minced Pork 10% Fat
1/3 Onion, finely chopped
1/3 Celery stick, finely chopped
1 Garlic clove, sliced
1/3 Carrot, roughly chopped
1 ¼ tbsp Tomato purée
170g Passata
35 ml Water
1 tsp Red Wine Vinegar
1 tsp Soft Light Brown Sugar
Pinch Dried Oregano
1/3 Bunch of basil

Topping:

70g Mature Cheddar, grated
1/3 tsp Tomato puree

Method:

STEP 1. First make the bechamel sauce. Melt the butter and flour together in a big saucepan and cook the paste for a couple of mins. Gradually whisk in the milk, little by little, until you have a nice smooth sauce. Add the mustard, ground nutmeg & grated grated cheddar and Bubble for a few mins stirring well to incorporate, then season with salt, pepper to taste. Switch off, cover with cling film (lay it directly onto the sauce) until ready to use.

STEP 2. For the ragu sauce heat the oil in a non-stick pan, add the chopped onion and fry until it starts to soften, then add the garlic, oregano, celery and carrot and cook until soft. Meanwhile, heat a none stick frying pan and fry the mince in batches, scooping each batch out with a slotted spoon and leave any excess oil behind. Add the mince (discarding the oil) to the veg, then stir in the tomato purée and cook for 1 min. Stir in the passata, water, brown sugar and red wine vinegar bringing to a simmer. Cover and cook over a medium to low heat for 20 minutes until the meat is tender. Season to taste with the salt and cracked black pepper and finish by stirring in the chopped fresh basil. If the sauce is a little thick add extra water to loosen.

STEP 3. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Half the ragu sauce into the base of a baking dish. Top with a layer of lasagne sheets, spread the remaining Ragu sauce across the pasta. Top with another layer of lasagne sheets, finish with the cheesy bechamel sauce. Combine the topping ingredients and scatter over the top. Bake for 25-30 mins until the lasagne is cooked through and the top golden.

Batch it up!

To save money, batch cooking is the way forward – it’s essentially why we can make recipes cheaper than you can at home.

With a bit of forethought, the right kit, space in the freezer and a few hours set aside, you can batch cook yourself by scaling up the quantities above.

A few tips:

Clean COOK trays can be really useful. Make your portion, freeze in the tray, then, once frozen, pop out and wrap in cling film to store (or, if you have lots of trays, just store in the tray).

To reheat from frozen, pop the frozen block into one of our ceramic dishes and cook at about 170C until piping hot.

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