Another favourite in our house. A couple of tips: Béchamel sauce might be replaced by crème fraîche to make it healthier, easier, and quicker. Fresh lasagne sheets are always better but dry will do as well (just adjust cooking time accordingly). If you use dry pasta you can prepare everything in the morning and leave it for up to 6 hours before cooking. The pasta will soften and cook quicker. Beef and pork gives you a juicier mixture but you can easily use beef only.

You need

• Lasagne dish;
• 2 sauce pans;

Ingredients

• 300g lasagne sheets
• 200g grated Parmesan cheese

Tomato and mince sauce

• 200g mixed vegetables (1 onion, 2 celery sticks, 1 carrot)
• 40g olive oil
• 800g mixed mince (beef and pork)
• 100g dry white wine (optional)
• 400g canned chopped tomatoes
• 2 beef stock pots
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• black pepper

Béchamel (white) sauce

• 800-1000g milk
• 80g butter
• 100g flour
• 1 tsp salt
• grated nutmeg

OR

• crème fraîche
• grated Parmesan cheese
• grated nutmeg
• milk

Step by step

• Cook the tomato sauce first. Chop the vegetables (I use my electric food processor).
• Heat a large frying pan until hot and add the oil. Saute the vegetables until soft and lightly golden (5-7 min).
• Stir in the meat, breaking it up with a spatula. Cook for 10 min.
• Add the wine (optional) and cook for 5 more minutes before adding the tomatoes, stock, salt, black pepper. Continue cooking for around 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Now it’s time to cook the white sauce (béchamel). Warm the milk in a microwave. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and cook over the heat for one minute. Gradually whisk in the hot milk. Keep whisking until the sauce becomes thick. Add the parmesan cheese and season well with salt, nutmeg, and pepper.
• OR for a quick option use the crème fraîche. Mix it with the grated cheese, season and add a bit of milk if needed.
• To arrange your lasagne put a thin layer of the tomato sauce in the base of the lasagne ovenproof dish. Cover it with the lasagne sheets. Arrange another layer of the tomato sauce. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and cover with the lasagne sheets again. Now put a layer of the white sauce. Keep alternating the sauces and don’t forget to sprinkle each layer with the cheese. The top layer should be white, top it with the remaining cheese.
• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Cook for about 45 minutes or until the pasta is soft and the top is golden brown.
• Allow the lasagne to rest for 15 min before serving.
• Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and green salad.

  Your shopping basket

• 300g lasagne sheets – £1.85
• 200g grated Parmesan cheese – £2.50
• 1 onion – £0.25
• celery sticks – £0.62
• 1 carrot – £0.20
• 400g canned chopped tomatoes – £0.70
• 1L milk – £1.00g
• 250g butter – £0.95
• 4 beef stock pots – £1.00
• 800g mixed mince (beef and pork) – £6.42

• Total basket £15.49 | Cost of ingredients (6 serving) £14.09 | Per serving £2.35