Lasagne Bolognese

Prymitywna Kuchnia has a huge amount of work on. Perhaps I’ll write about it one day. But I think it’s still too early. And it’s not as if I’m not cooking anything. Friday was a day of mega cooking. Prawns, broth… and the meat for a hit. Something we haven’t had here before. Lasagne bolognese. The classic kind. Or so I think, at least. Oh. It was good.

It’s worth preparing the meat the day before, but you don’t have to.

I fancied lasagne, especially since I’d bought fresh pasta sheets. So I prepared the meat on Friday, but the lasagne was the perfect accompaniment to the Poland–Georgia match. It was just as amazing as the final score achieved by our runners.

And before that? And afterwards too? A perfect weekend. Two days at the Konstancin festival, organised very, very well. I won’t repeat how much I love this place. The peace, the holiday atmosphere, that constant feeling of being on holiday.

And two days at the Konstancja restaurant, which finally tempted us with a „new menu and new chef”. I admit the chef is pretty good. The menu is fairly short but appealing. The dishes, though a little underseasoned, were very good (I had trout from the Tuchola Forest and a grilled chicken salad). But the staff… definitely new (their 2nd day at work), and consequently…

… a disaster. When asked whether the carrots served as a side for a child were sweet, the answer was:

I don’t know, I haven’t tried them, it’s only my second day working here

A knockout. Completely. Then there were other little delights, such as bringing the cutlery after the food, or serving main courses to three of us before saying to the fourth person:

could I give you trout instead of salmon, madam? Because I accidentally served your salmon to another guest, who didn’t admit it wasn’t his dish

humiliating 🙂

It’s a disaster, a complete tragedy, when a reasonably decent restaurant can’t train its staff. Even if they’ve only been working there for a day or two. I’ll write it again. A DISASTER!

But yes, we ate like pigs all weekend. And had this lasagne on top of that. Apart from the service, though, everything was basically very good. So I highly recommend both 🙂 Konstancja and my lasagne bolognese.

BTW, forgive the exceptionally poor photos of this lasagne. Blame the excitement at the end of the Poland–Georgia match 🙂

Recipe at a glance:

Preparation time: 3 hours

Baking time: 35 minutes

Baking temperature: 200 degrees Celsius

Serves: 4 to 6

Calories: a bolognese-load

Ingredients for not-quite-classic lasagne bolognese:

• 500 grams minced pork (half a kilo, that is)
• 350 grams semi-hard cheese (I used salami cheese, but you can use Gouda or mozzarella)
• 2 medium carrots
• half a medium courgette
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tin peeled tomatoes
• 8 large lasagne sheets (mine were 25 by 10 cm, preferably fresh)
• half a block of butter
• 2 tablespoons wheat flour (heaped)
• half a litre of milk (I had 2%)
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• dried herbes de Provence
• olive oil
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• sweet dried red paprika

Recipe for lasagne:

First I prepared the meat. This takes the longest. It’s practically very similar to the meat for spaghetti bolognese. Though perhaps a little different. So:

I heated olive oil in a medium saucepan and added freshly minced beef. I added two or three pinches of salt and freshly ground pepper and mixed it all together. I fried it over a fairly high „heat”, stirring frequently. I added 4 crushed, roughly chopped cloves of garlic and stirred again.

I cut the carrot in half lengthways and then into thin half-rounds. I added it to the meat and stirred again. Then I halved the courgette and cut it into thin half-rounds too. I added it to the meat. Stirred. Added plenty of dried herbes de Provence and sweet ground red paprika. Stirred.

After about 5 minutes of frying, I added a tin of peeled Italian tomatoes and stirred. I turned down the „heat” and continued cooking like that, stirring from time to time, for about 2 hours, until I had a fairly thick meat sauce.

I stopped at this point and finished the next day, but you can start assembling the lasagne straight away.

I made the béchamel sauce. I melted half a block of butter in a small saucepan. I added two tablespoons of wheat flour and stirred to make a roux. Once the roux was smooth (no lumps, just a fairly thick paste), I started adding the milk. First a glass, then slowly the rest, stirring all the time. Once I’d added the whole half-litre of milk, still stirring, I added a teaspoon of nutmeg, pepper and salt. I stirred over a low heat so that the béchamel thickened a little. It mustn’t become completely thick, because it’s a sauce for pouring over lasagne. So it should only be slightly thick.

Once the béchamel was ready, I started assembling the lasagne. I laid two large lasagne sheets in the bottom of a deep ovenproof dish. I poured 3 tablespoons of béchamel over them and spread on 1/3 of the meat (which I’d made the day before, so I warmed it slightly, but it can be made that very same day). I sprinkled the meat with roughly 1/4 of the cheese, which I’d prepared earlier and cut into small cubes.

I laid 2 lasagne sheets on top. On those I spread 1/3 of the meat, poured over béchamel (1/4) and sprinkled on cheese (1/4). Then I covered it with pasta sheets again and added the rest of the meat. I sprinkled on cheese and poured over béchamel. Finally, I covered it with 3 sheets (to cover the lasagne properly), poured béchamel over them and sprinkled generously with cheese.

I put it in the oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes. After that, the wonderful lasagne bolognese is ready. Enjoy!