We are starting our 12 favourite dishes series with probably my favourite dish - lasagne. Now I know it is not fancy and it is probably not deemed ‘special’ but let’s be honest, lasagne does take some time to make from scratch, making the filling, the sauce and then baking it. So it should feel special. I could make a meat ragu for bolognese and if I said bolognese was for supper, nobody would be upset, and yet by replacing the spaghetti with lasagne sheets and adding a gorgeous creamy sauce that has been baked to perfection, everybody (in my circle at least), tends to say YES and be really happy and excited for supper. It is deeply comforting, and usually so full of flavour. When I sit down to a lasagne I find I go quiet - and that is not just because I am impatient and often burn my tongue - the world just slows down for the precious moments I am eating.

How does so much heat and steam actually get into those layers, for the first 5 minutes or so you are literally risking third degree burns with every mouthful. Of course the sensible thing to do is remove it from the oven and leave it to sit for 10 minutes but the smell is so good it is just not always possible if you are not really, really strong willed.

If we look at the history of lasagne, a similar sounding dish dates all the way back to Ancient Roman times (8th Century BC) which is incredible. However, my research suggested the ancient Romans may have borrowed the word from Ancient Greece which means it most likely existed even before then. There are very many other references as you go through the years, notably from Greece, the UK (if you can believe that, albeit that it did not contain tomatoes as this predated Christopher Columbus) and of course Italy. For lasagne itself, the first written mention of it was in 1282 and the first recorded recipe was in the 14th century. What I love about this is how, although the dish has somewhat changed, the bare bones of the recipe remain the same.

The now classic lasagne is a layered pasta bake consisting of meat ragu and pasta sheets topped with béchamel (for me always a cheese sauce, sorry Italians). However, lasagne has now been totally modernised and there are many (very lovely) alternatives. My advice therefore is don’t deny yourself for tradition. Alternatives include vegetables, mushrooms and seafood but to name a few. Victoria however thinks that the classic version is the only true lasagne amongst our offerings.

One of my favourite lasagne is a slow cooked beef shin version. If you look up the recipe you will see that it says cooking time 5 hours, don’t be put off by this because most of it (4 hours or so) is very hands off, the longest part is cooking the ragu which the oven takes care of. What I love about it is that the ragu changes if you leave it overnight, as the flavours really marry and intensify. This makes it good to make over a few days, make the ragu on day 1 and then assemble everything on day 2 or 3. This recipe also makes double the amount of ragu needed (since it is such a long cook to me this makes perfect sense) you can then freeze half, use it for another dish or double the other ingredients and make 2 lasagnes (freezing the second). If there anything nicer than having a home cooked meal you literally just need to reheat. The recipe uses a spicy Calabrian chilli paste but if heat is not your thing, just leave it out.

I also really love seafood versions, we have a crab lasagne which is just fabulous and the sauce is a cardamom cheese which goes so well with the crab. During lockdown we took part in some cook-alongs which involved being sent all ingredients and you make it along with the chef. This was great fun but what you are not left with is a recipe, this meant a lot of testing and making of crab lasagne until we got it right. This version uses wonton wrappers which you can now get from supermarkets which is great.

The other favourite is a take on an Ixta Belfrage recipe from Mezcla. I love Ixta’s version but dried jalapeños are perhaps not something the average person would have in their spice kit. I wanted to include a version which used more common chillies and so I have played with it a little and added chipotle chillies which most supermarkets sell. In place of mincemeat is minced prawns which you can either cut by hand or you can use a food processor, just pulse until the prawns are mostly chopped. You might look and think ugh it is a little paste like, but hold your nerve, once you start cooking them you will be amazed that it turns out like mince. Also don’t be alarmed if one or 2 prawns haven’t been cut down, just remember where you place this and take it as the chef’s treat. Depending on the level of spice you like, drizzle chilli oil over for that extra little kick. Chilli oil can also be bought in most supermarkets. This is one of our favourites.

I mentioned earlier the importance of letting your lasagne sit for a while, this helps not only with the lava qualities that lasagne takes on, but it also lets it set which makes cutting it so much easier. If you want to see a non-set looking lasagne, look at the puttanesca recipe. We have been fiddling with the puttanesca version for a while and did a final run last week so we could get it up on the website in time for this post. The whole house smelt amazing and I suddenly realised how very hungry I was. It came out of the oven and I thought no, I am not waiting, so cut it, photographed it, started eating, burnt my mouth and looked at the picture and thought honestly could you really not wait 10 minutes? This version has anchovies in but, if you are a veggie, just leave them out, you will just need to add a touch more seasoning.

I usually make my own pasta for lasagne but that is because I love making pasta and love the texture of home made, I also love that it is thin and truly no-cook. I do occasionally buy lasagne sheets, but I would always go with chilled over dried. I know dried is fine when cooked but I do find it just doesn’t always cook all the way through and remains more al dente than I like (despite bragging it is no-cook). If I ever do use dried I tend to put them into heavily salted boiling water for a few minutes to get the cooking process going. If you do this, do be careful and only put in enough sheets for 1 layer at any one time. I would put the dried sheets in, build my first layer while it is cooking and then get some kitchen towel. Remove the sheets to kitchen towel very carefully as they tend to be delicate and then put the next layer of sheets into the water, put the cooked pasta sheets over the filling and then repeat. Cooked plain pasta has a horrible habit of sticking to each other hence only doing a few at a time, it is much easier then to control the cooking keeping them firmly away from each other, and then of course assembly is also much easier.

**Spicy tomato and pesto chicken lasagne**

We have decreased our meat intake and increased the number of vegetarian meals we make over the last year or so. This lead to a few non-meat lasagnes, namely mushroom and wild garlic, butternut squash and chard and a classic version made with meat-free mince. All very lovely. The mushroom and wild garlic lasagne has a wild garlic oil drizzled over the top but if you don’t want to make the oil, just add 80g of wild garlic to the chard as then you will get the amazing will garlic flavour singing through. If you are a vegan, you can replace the dairy elements with non-dairy replacements.

Matt’s favourite lasagne is the spicy tomato and pesto chicken version which I have been making for a really long time now. It really is a lovely version and perfect for people reducing the amount of red meat they are eating. Again, if you do not like spice, dial it down or just remove the spice altogether.

Whichever version you fancy, I am sure you won’t be disappointed, it is truly a comfort food that the world just stops for.

Enjoy.

Our 12 Favourite Dishes: Lasagne

Eating all over the world: B - Brazil