Lasagne alla cacciatore

Try our tasty twist on this Italian classic.

Ingredients

  • 500g shredded meat (like braising steak)
  • 455g pre-prepared lasagna sheets
  • Parmesan cheese for grating
  • 2 x 150g balls of mozzarella, torn up
  • A handful of fresh sage leaves
  • Olive oil
  • For the tomato sauce:
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
  • A sprig of fresh rosemary
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 3 x 400g tins of good quality plum tomatoes
  • For the white sauce:
  • 1 litre of milk
  • A sprig of fresh parsley
  • A pinch of nutmeg
  • Half an onion, peeled and sliced
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • 80g butter
  • 65g plain flour
  • 150g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Serves 4

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Timing

Cooking time: 2 hours

Picture of Lasagne alla cacciatore

Instructions

  1. First make the tomato sauce. Heat a pan and add a splash of oil. Slowly fry the garlic until lightly colored, and then add the rosemary, bay leaves and tomatoes. Cook gently for 45 minutes with a lid on.
  2. When the tomatoes are nearly done, put the milk, parsley, nutmeg, onion and black peppercorns into another pan and bring gently to the boil. Melt the butter in a third pan and add the flour. Mix well, then strain the milk and add it a ladleful at a time, stirring it in well until you have a thick smooth white sauce. Bring to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes, then take off the heat, add the Parmesan and season well.
  3. Add your shredded meat to the tomato sauce, with a little hot water if it’s too dry, and season. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. Remove the rosemary and bay.
  4. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4 and butter a large baking dish. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and blanch 2 or 3 sheets of lasagna at a time, then cover the bottom of the dish with strips, letting them hang over the edges. Top with some meat sauce, then some white sauce and a sprinkling of Parmesan and repeat the layers until you run out of meat. Fold over the pasta from the edges and top with a final layer of white sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan, tear over the mozzarella, scatter over your sage and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or so, or until golden.
Arthur Potts Dawson recipe as featured in The Times.