Lasagne (Classic Homemade Lasagna), pasta fiesta!

🌟 Difficulty	⏱️ Time	🍽️ Serves
★★ Medium	~1 h 15	6–8

Lasagne is one of the great classics of home cooking — and together with Moussaka and Pasticcio, it forms what I like to call the holy trinity of layered comfort dishes. All three are rich, generous, oven-baked recipes that bring people together around the table and turn any meal into something special.

These are not quick recipes — they take a bit of time and care — but that is exactly what makes them so rewarding. Perfect for family gatherings, Sunday lunches, or when you want to cook something truly memorable.

If you enjoy this style of cooking, you’ll find the other two recipes in my cookbook Vivian is Cooking: GREEK, available worldwide in both French and English on Amazon — along with many other traditional Greek favorites.

Now let’s make one of the most beloved of them all: classic homemade lasagne ✨

Ingredients 

(for a large 30 × 36 cm / 12 × 14 inch oven dish, deep enough for layers)

Lasagne

• 1 box lasagne sheets (500 g), ready-to-use (no pre-cooking needed)
• 1 large bottle tomato passata / tomato sauce for pasta (about 700 g)
• 1.5–2 cups grated cheese (mix of Gruyère, Parmesan & Emmental)
• 2–3 tbsp breadcrumbs (chapelure)

Meat Sauce

• 1 kg ground veal (or half veal, half pork)
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 800 g canned tomatoes or tomato passata
• 1 cup water
• 4 tbsp chopped parsley
• Salt & pepper

Béchamel Sauce

• 1 L milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 eggs
• Salt & white pepper

Instructions

1. Prepare the meat sauce: Sauté the onion in a little oil until soft. Add the ground meat and cook until browned. Stir in tomatoes (or passata), water, parsley, salt, and pepper. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes until thick and rich.
2. Prepare the béchamel sauce: Heat the milk in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour, salt, and white pepper over medium heat until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat, add butter, then quickly whisk in the eggs until smooth and creamy.
3. Start layering: Spread a thin layer of meat sauce and béchamel in the bottom of the baking dish. Add a layer of lasagne sheets.
4. Build the lasagne: Continue layering: meat sauce → béchamel → pasta sheets → cheese. Repeat until all ingredients are used.
5. Finish the top: Top with béchamel, a generous layer of grated cheese, and breadcrumbs for a golden, slightly crunchy crust.
6. Bake: Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35–40 minutes, until golden, bubbling, and beautifully crisp on top.
7. Rest before serving: Let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting — this helps the layers set perfectly.

Serving & Variations

• Serve with a green salad or garlic bread for a complete meal.
• You can also add mozzarella between the layers or vegetables such as spinach or zucchini for variation.
• Lasagne tastes even better the next day and reheats beautifully ✨
• Lasagne is a perfect candidate for batch cooking: it freezes and reheats beautifully, making it ideal for busy weeks or intensive study periods — it has always been one of my son’s favorite comfort meals during exam season 😊

 

[Recipe initially published on 1/23/14 9:50 PM]