Garfield days: Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce

Ok lets take a break from my cookie obsession for a while … (you know, at least a few days while I eat all my Ninjabread men).

Now? Lasagna.

A fantastic mix of pasta, meat and cheese. Great anytime, especially Mondays (hehe).

This requires a little bit of work (allow at least 30 minutes for prep) but the result is delicious and creating in the kitchen can be greatly relaxing! Go with it, have fun and trust your instincts.

It DOES taste as good as it looks

I don’t think I could actually credit this recipe anywhere, it has just been a creation that evolved over time. I seem to tweak this recipe each time I make it. The ingredients below make up a great flavour base. The tweaking is usually measurements or random additions or what I have on hand.

What you need:

1 packet of lasagna sheets (I am yet to master making my own pasta)
A good sized baking dish (glass or ceramic are best – unless you have one of these! WANT!!!)
Cheese for layering (minimum 1 cup)

For the meat –

500g beef mince
400g tin of tomatoes
2 fresh tomatoes
6 (ish) basil leaves
1 cup red wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp sage
Pinch of cinnamon
1 tsp all spice
1 tsp sugar
Pinch of salt

For the bechamel sauce –

3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cups milk (more on hand if necessary)
1/2 cup cheese

Use any kind of cheese you like here, something with a sharpness or smokeyness is really good but a plain cheddar works great too.

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. In a large frypan, crush or finely slice garlic and gently fry with a dash of olive oil.
3. Break up the mince (just with your hands) into the frypan  and cook until almost fully browned.
4. Add tinned tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for a further 3 – 4 minutes.
5. Add wine and all herbs and spices, stir thoroughly.
6. Finely dice fresh tomatoes and mix into meat.
7. Turn down to a low heat and set aside to simmer and thicken.
   

   ooooh saucy

8. In a small saucepan, place butter and flour. Turn on medium/high and let the butter melt. Keep and eye on this so it doesn’t overheat/burn to the bottom.
9. Reduce the heat to medium and add about 1/2 cup of milk. Whisking often, watch this thicken then add another 1/2 cup of milk at a time. Depending on the size of lasagna you like/how cheesy you like your lasanga, add more milk to make more sauce.
10. Grate the cheese into the sauce and let melt together then set aside until ready to use.
    

    melt my pretty mellllt

11. Check on your meat part, it should be cooked thoroughly and nicely thick (without being clumpy).
12. Using a little butter of spray oil, grease your baking dish then place a layer of lasagna sheets over the bottom.
13. Spoon in a little meat and spread over. You don’t need to completely cover the lasagna sheets in meat, and if you did you would run out really quickly.
14. Place a little grated cheese on top of the meat then layer lasagna sheets. Cover those sheets with bechamel sauce then commence your next meat layer.
    

    Don't be ashamed if your dish doesn't fit the lasagna sheets, I break them up to fit what I need. It all tastes the same!

15. Continue meat, grated cheese, lasagna sheets, bechamel until you have used all the meat. Make sure your last layer is bechamel! Use up all of the sauce here and cover with the remaining grated cheese – or grate more!
    

    I want to set up camp right in there ...

16. Bake for 45 minutes until the lasagna sheets are cooked thoroughly.
17. Serve with steamed vegetables or a fresh salad (I recommend a simple lettuce, carrot peels and feta cheese salad – the flavours complete lasagna SO well).
    

    Baked meaty cheesy pastay perfection

Fruit Punch (obvs alcoholic …)

You can’t go wrong combining refreshing drinks and your daily fruit serving.

Summer is the best for big fruity cold cocktails. My gorge friend TJ recently reminded me just how epic fruit punch is. Especially on a random girls weekend while doing colouring in and then painting my outdoor furniture …

Guess who did the Disney Princess one!

The best part is you can pretty much put in anything you want and make it as alcoholic as you like! Great for all summer parties, the main thing you need is a pitcher or giant bowl!

Here is the Fee and TJ recipe for super awesome Fruit Punch.

What you need:

1 bottle of Moscato (you could also use Pinot Grigio or any sweetish white wine. Or vodka! Or bacardi!)
1 tin of passionfruit nectar (approx 170g)
3 pack of Golburn Valley diced fruit salad
1 large bottle of Bundaberg ginger neer
1.25L of lemonade
1L Golden Circle pineapple juice
1 tin of lychees
Fresh Mango, cubed
Ice

Basically just get all of this stuff and put it together, oops I gave away what to do!

What to do:

1. In a large (like HUGE) bowl or pitcher (minimum 3L capacity) put a few handfuls of ice.
2. If you only have 3L, put in half the wine, about 1/3 lemonade and 1/2 ginger beer. If you have the huge bowl, use up all the full bottles.
3. Pour in half the tin of passionfruit, 1 and a half tubs of the Golburn Valley fruit.
4. Dice up some lychee and mango and place in the pitcher. Pour in about 1/3 of a cup of lychee juice.
5. Top up with pineapple juice.
6. Stir, pour, sit back and relax. 

Fruit Punch!

I suppose it is worth noting that this combination tastes fine without wine or spirits if you are needing an underage appropriate drink but really … just give them a coke or something and enjoy this for yourself!

Red Wine Risotto

I feel like this doesn’t need much introduction. Risotto is yum. Red wine is yum. GO.

Wait.

Before we get started, I want to note the versatility of this recipe. The basics of this will make any type or Risotto. For traditional, just don’t add any of the wine/tomato mixture. To try different flavours, try adding 500g of mashed pumpkin, a tin of mushroom soup or a large tin of corn and lots of sage at step 8.

What you need:

2 cups Aborio rice
4 cups chicken stock (or 2 stock cubes and 4 cups of boiling water)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp butter
1 large onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup red wine
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
440g tin of tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt (to taste)
Lemon juice and parmesan cheese to finish

What to do:

1. In a large saucepan with a lid place onion, garlic, a little salt, olive oil and butter. 
   

   Speed slicer ... my life would be a teary mess without you

2. If you need to make your own stock, now is the to put the kettle on.
3. Turn your stove top to a high heat to melt butter and cook onion until it is slightly clear.
4. Add rice and stir thoroughly until rice is fully coated in oil/butter.
5. Cook for 2 minutes. 
   

   Rice, nicely buttered and oiled

6. Add 1/2 the stock (or 2 cups/one stock cube) and turn the heat down to medium.
7. When this is mostly absorbed (10-15 minutes), add the rest of your stock, turn heist to low and cover the pot loosely with the lid.
8. In a small frypan, combine tinned tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar.
9. Heat thoroughly for 5 minutes. 
   

   Tomatoes and wine, my old friends

10. Pour this mixture into the risotto.
11. Add sage and a little salt. You can add a little extra wine here if you like.
12. Continue to cook until all of the liquid is absorbed. You still want this to be soft and smooth so a good way to test is, using your stirrer, quickly create a well in the middle. If no liquid pools there quickly, you are done!
13. Squeeze in a large dash of lemon juice (fresh or bottled) and grate in a little parmesan cheese.
14. Take off heat and cover tightly. Let the pot sit for three minutes.
15. Give the risotto one last stir and serve! 
    

    Warning: Surprisingly filling!

Best served with some lamb or beef, this can be eaten alone or served with anything you like!