I use fresh lasagne sheets which reduces the need to precook the pasta and has a better texture. Home made pasta is wonderful in lasagne and really is not difficult to do. If you are using dried lasagne sheets please do precook.

I like cheese in my sauce but if you don’t, just remove it.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
300g onions, finely chopped
30g anchovies, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced or chopped
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
150ml red wine
1 tbsp tomato puree
150g drained, pitted kalamata olives, cut in
half
45g capers (from a jar), drained
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
Salt
Pepper
425ml milk
50g flour
50g butter
150g cheddar, grated
Handful of fresh parsley, chopped
Roughly 250g fresh lasagne sheets
20g Parmesan, finely grated

Equipment required
20 - 23cm square oven dish

Method
Heat the tbsp of the oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes until translucent, stirring often.  Add the anchovies and garlic and fry for another 1-2 minutes until everything are starting to go golden.  Add the chilli and cook for a further minute.  Pour in the red wine, stir and cook for a few minutes to cook off some of the alcohol and reduce the wine a little.  Add the tomato puree and stir thoroughly until everything is coated in tomato and then add the tomatoes, olives, capers and sugar and pepper and simmer for 40 minutes, checking and stirring often over that time.

When your sauce has been cooking for half an hour, you need to get your pasta sheets and cheese sauce ready.  Preheat your oven to 180c.

Meanwhile, to make your béchamel put the butter into a small pan and melt over a medium high heat.  When the butter has melted, add the flour and vigorously stir until the butter has incorporated and then keep cooking and stirring for another minute.  Slowly add your milk a bit at a time, stirring to ensure there are no lumps as you go.  Leave the sauce to cook on a low heat for 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat, add the cheese and stir until melted.  Check the seasoning of both your cheese sauce and your sauce and adjust where necessary.

Before assembling, remove the pasta sheets from the packet and work out how many sheets you need per layer for your dish. We are aiming for 4 layers of sauce, 4 layers of pasta and a layer of cheese, you may need to cut your sheets to fit.  I also take my spoon and ‘divide’ the sauce in the pan into 4 so I know how much sauce I have per layer.

In a large square dish add a quarter of the puttanesca sauce and evenly spread over the bottom of your dish and top with a layer of the pasta sheets. Repeat 3 more times, ending with a layer of pasta.  Cover with the cheese sauce and scatter over the Parmesan.

Bake for 30 - 45 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.