quick lasagne question

[Lea]

oh god i just looked up how to make bechamel sauce and it says i need bouquet garni. what the hell is bouquet garni??

life is so complicated

bouquet garni is mixed herbs. You can buy it in normal supermarkets but I didnt think that you needed it to make bechamel sauce.

 

[electrogirl]

bouquet garni is mixed herbs. You can buy it in normal supermarkets but I didnt think that you needed it to make bechamel sauce.

ok goody. so bechamel is just flour butter milk?

 

[Biddlybee]

Cakey bakey lady is correct!

Thanky ou sir

so should i be using white sauce or cheese sauce??

Depends how much you like cheese... I like cheese a lot

Because it's too rich.

Bollocks is it

 

[Biddlybee]

ok goody. so bechamel is just flour butter milk?

Yep... then once it's thickened you can add a bit of pepper, salt, nutmeg, then the cheese

Never heard of using boquet garnet for a white/cheese sauce

 

[Lea]

ok goody. so bechamel is just flour butter milk?

Yes, or at least white sauce is. Maybe there is a subtle difference in white sauce and bechamel sauce in that youre supposed to put in a bouquet garni for the bechamel sauce???

white sauce:

http://thefoody.com/soups/whitesauce.html

bechamel sauce:

http://thefoody.com/soups/bechamelsauce.html

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Course I do. But it was known as ragu way before the jars of crap were invented.

So you say it's 'Italian for' and 'Cheffy speak' and except that it's commonly known in the UK as the jars of tat, yet you call me a 'muppet' for thinking that's what you meant.

That's not very nice.

 

[Chairman Meow]

So you say it's 'Italian for' and 'Cheffy speak' and except that it's commonly known in the UK as the jars of tat, yet you call me a 'muppet' for thinking that's what you meant.

That's not very nice.

Look mate, ragu was a well known word for an italian meat based sauce long before the jars came out. I don't know why you're getting arsey with me because you didn't know that.

 

[mr steev]

Look mate, ragu was a well known word for an italian meat based sauce long before the jars came out. I don't know why you're getting arsey with me because you didn't know that.

I'm willing to bet though that if you asked 100 random people in the UK what Ragu is, the vast majority of them would say it's the crap sauce in a jar.

 

[toblerone3]

I don't quite know why but the thread title just made me laugh

 

[rutabowa]

I'm willing to bet though that if you asked 100 random people in the UK what Ragu is, the vast majority of them would say it's the crap sauce in a jar.

i have the answer. it is "ragu" for the italian beef thing, but "Ragu" (capital R) for the ready made sauce. don't know what you woudl do if it was at the beginning of a sentence.

 

[Kaye]

I do pasta , ragu, white sauce and repeat, finishing off with white sauce on the top, covered by cheese.

Error.
Or maybe my error.

 

[Chairman Meow]

Error.
Or maybe my error.

Your error. I make my own sauce, and have never bought a jar of Ragu in my life.

 

[Chairman Meow]

I'm willing to bet though that if you asked 100 random people in the UK what Ragu is, the vast majority of them would say it's the crap sauce in a jar.

Well, Ragu is the stuff in the jar, but ragu is the original word that the jar guys nicked.

 

[mr steev]

i have the answer. it is "ragu" for the italian beef thing, but "Ragu" (capital R) for the ready made sauce. don't know what you woudl do if it was at the beginning of a sentence.

Oh, the confusion

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Look mate, ragu was a well known word for an italian meat based sauce long before the jars came out. I don't know why you're getting arsey with me because you didn't know that.

I'll tell you why, it's because you called me a muppet for not knowing you were talking something that more commonly known as a pre made jar of sauce in the UK.
I accept it has be known as ragu long before any jars of Ragu hit the shelves, and that I was unaware of this.
I'm not sure it is a well known work in the UK for that meat sauce.

Poll.

 

[Chairman Meow]

Ragu?

I bet you buy your white sauce as well. Fttt.

Look, you said this to me, so you were being a bit of a muppet. But I am not going to get into a slanging match over lasagne! You were wrong, get over it.

 

[sheothebudworths]

I'm not sure it is a well known work in the UK for that meat sauce.

Course it is you fuckin muppet.

 

[sheothebudworths]

((((((((((((((( Atomic )))))))))))))))

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Look, you said this to me, so you were being a bit of a muppet. But I am not going to get into a slanging match over lasagne! You were wrong, get over it.

Well if you bought off the shelf ragu in a jar maybe you would buy some white sauce in a packet, that is a logical conclusion to jump to.

If you had simply said that you meant ragu as in the italian/cheffy word for a meat sauce then I would go
"oops I didn't know. Is it commonly known as that in the UK?"
"Not really, I think most people would think like you did that it was that gruesome ready made stuff, but it's an Italian word thats also used in cheffy circles".
"I see, that wasn't clear to me as I am not in any cheffy circles, I take back that white sauce comment, you are clearly the sort that circles in a cheffy way and would never use a packet sauce".

But no.

What if on that sushi thread I said
"why not have some nihonshu with that sushi?"
"I would rather have sake"
"You muppet, nihonshu IS the real name for sake. All the Japanese know that. Pfft".

 

[electrogirl]

i shall interrupt the bunfight with the news that..

my lasagne was shit

 

[Biddlybee]

takes a bit of practice hon.

Why was it shit?

 

[electrogirl]

takes a bit of practice hon.

Why was it shit?

well i think i put in the wrong dish for a start, and the top was really really crispy but the past in the middle wasn't cooked very well and i don't think there was enough filling.

it was the first meal i had made for my new flatmates and bless them they were like 'mmmmmmmm lovely', but all i could hear was them crunching the burnt crunchy pasta.

 

[Looby]

I have this problem when I make it so I either buy fresh pasta sheets or I par cook it first but not all at once to stop them sticking together.

 

[mr steev]

well i think i put in the wrong dish for a start, and the top was really really crispy but the past in the middle wasn't cooked very well and i don't think there was enough filling.

it was the first meal i had made for my new flatmates and bless them they were like 'mmmmmmmm lovely', but all i could hear was them crunching the burnt crunchy pasta.

Sounds like maybe you didn't use enough sauce? I know what you mean about using the right dish. I find a lot of lasagne dishes are too shallow.

One thing I've discovered, using dry lasagne sheets, is that you either need to build your lasagne at the last minute or make sure that the fillings are totally cooled. Otherwise the pasta has a tendancy to curl a bit which will raise it up a bit causing it to go crispy when cooked.

 

[trabuquera]

Sorry about the lasagne fiasco, EG. Rest assured you're not the only one - it amazes me that people think lasagne is 'dead easy'; I guess because everyone's so used to having it available ready-made, in pubs, etc, folks think it's common and easy to make. It's not, especially when you're trying to make it properly (i.e. with proper sauces not out of a tin/packet/jar), it's a massive faff and even italians think of it as quite a 'special occasion' dish, because if you're doing it right it takes up all the available kitchen space, loads of pots and pans etc.

I've made crunchy lasagne too when using supposedly 'ready to cook' pre-made pasta sheets - not the soft "fresh" ones that come in a plastic pack, but the sort that comes in a cardboard box and says "no need to parboil". The lying f*cks - it somehow sucked all the moisture out of the ragu and bechamel sauces, but stayed crunchy - so I had layers of hard semi-cooked pasta, greyed-out mince and the odd smear of white floury stuff. ick.

Don't know if that was your error but if it wasn't, it sounds like you might have had the oven up too high. try again but cooking it for a bit longer at a lower temperature.

don't lose heart hon - just keep at it.

 

[spanglechick]

I don't use cheese or white sauce at all in mine. I put layers of ricotta cheese neat between the layers. It may sound gross, but you can actually substitute cottage cheese for ricotta. It's healthier and tastes pretty scrummy.

ok - my lasagne variation:

meat sauce shouldn't be too wet. When i worked as an au pair in N Italy lasagne was tall and sliced like a cake. I've made some changes but that always seems ideal to me.

so yes - lots of layers. I use a casserole dish (about 4-5" deep).

I also overlap my lasagne sheets quite generously. It makes it firmer.

Always par cook lasagne sheets - especially the ones on the top. I find a shallow tray of boiling water and a pair of tongs is best.

I don't use white sauce. Personal taste - but i'm in it for the cheese really. So I start with a layer of meat, then i roughly strew mozarella and good cheddar, then the pasta, the spread that thinly with ricotta. The start again.

Top layer = pasta - ricotta - meat - mozarella - heavier on the cheddar - liberal coating of parmasan.

If you like really strong cheese, I have used gorgonzola in with the mozarella / cheddar layer - but i can't really stomach it these days.

 

[Biddlybee]

I never par boil my dry pasta sheets and they always cook fine... might try the fresh ones one day for a change though

 

[cesare]

I did a flash lasagne last night. It's the first time I've tried this recipe so it was a bit of an experiment, but it worked well - lush but very rich/meaty. The ingredients are for a lasagne to serve 12 so scale it down.

Ingredients

For the meat sauce:
1 pound of sweet Italian sausage (I used a chorizo ring which made it very spicy, I'll definitely do that again but perhaps cut the chorizo pieces smaller)
1 pound of ground beef
1/2 cup of chopped onions
2 cloves of garlic chopped

For the tomato sauce:
1 (28 ounce) can of chopped tomatoes
2 (8 ounce) cans of tomato sauce (I used passata)
2 (6 ounce) cans of tomato puree
1/2 Cup of Water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon fennel seed
2 teaspoons fresh Basil leaves chopped (I used a lot more than this)
4 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped (save some for the cheese layer)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper (I used a lot more than this)

For the cheese layers:
23 ounces of ricotta cheese (I used much less than this, a small tub)
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1 egg
1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Lasagne sheets (I used the dried Barilla ones that don't need pre-cooking).

Method

Fry the meat ingredients until browned. Separately make the tomato sauce. Combine them both and simmer gently until cooked. Doing this the night before helps the flavours to develop.

Mix the ricotta with the egg, nutmeg and chopped parsley.

Butter a deep lasagne/roasting dish. Start with a layer of pasta. Then a layer of meat/tomato sauce. Then another layer of pasta. Then a layer of ricotta and sprinke mozzarella over it, then some parmesan. Repeat. The last layer should be meat sauce topped with the remaining parmesan.

Cover with foil and bake, removing foil towards the end so that the top gets browned and crunchy (I didn't bother with foil at all tbh).

I halved the ingredients and used substantially less ricotta - there's loads left over, enough for another dinner. We had it with rocket and garlic and basil bread.