High School Lasagne

For me one of the weirdest things about getting older is not the sudden crows feet that appeared after the birth of my first child; not the crazy, sleep deprived look that came with my second child and not even the fact that some things on my body now hang a little lower - no - for me it's saying things like, "I have this lasagne recipe from high school.....it's 22 years old! YIKES!". now that completely freaks me out. High school feels like yesterday to me. it's me listening to Eric Clapton, it's me doing drama, it's me thinking a boy a year above me named Adrian Ross is the bees knees and it's crazy 14year old me buying a bottle of wine, getting away with it and then realising I didn't have a cork screw!

In my first year in high school I took Home Science and loved it so much I took it for the next 5 years. From that 1st year I kept 4 recipes, typed by a typewriter no doubt, and have lovingly used them over the years. They are browned, torn and splattered here and there which made me think about how old they are and yes, they are 22 years old. That is so weird!

ingredients

1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
500g mince
good dash of dried rosemary
good dash of dried oregano
dash of sugar
good dash of salt
2 x 400g tin tomatoes

cheese sauce

25g butter
25g plain flour
1 cup milk
100g mozzarella or tasty cheese
salt, pepper, nutmeg

dried pasta sheets

how to make my high school lasagne

Pre heat your oven to 160C.
Pop your saucepan over a mid to low heat. Add some oil. when hot enough, add the onion and garlic. Sweat it down. When ready turn up the heat and add the mince. Cooked until browned. Add the herbs, salt and sugar to taste. After about 30 seconds add the tinned tomatoes. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, add the butter to a saucepan. Melt gently. Take off the heat and add the plain flour until combined. Put back on the heat and add the milk gradually, incorporating everything as you go. When the milk is all added, keep stirring over a low heat until the mix thickens. The whole process whould take about 10 - 15 minutes depending on your stove. When it is thick, turn off the heat and add your mozzarella. Stir and add your salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg.

grab your square, 5cm height dish. Place a little of the meat sauce to cover the base. Add some dried pasta sheets. Cover these with some more meat sauce. Add half the cheese sauce. Layer over some more pasta sheets then again with the reast of the meat and the rest of the cheese sauce.

I love to cook this slowly for about an hour on 160C. I like lasagne really well done (as you can see in the photo) and I don't like a huge amount of cheese sauce in my lasagne. If you do, just double the cheese sauce quantities. I've adapted this recipe over the years. The original had tomato paste which I'm not really a fan of and it also had dried basil but I didn't think this was really necessary. I hope you enjoy it!