The perfect lasagne recipe comes down to four things: a ragu cooked slowly for at least 90 minutes, a béchamel thick enough to coat a spoon, a rest of 10 to 15 minutes before the first cut, and one choice you make at the shelf before the oven is even on. Get the first three right and you'll have a good lasagne. The fourth decides whether your slice stands up or slumps into soup on the plate.
Most American lasagna recipes add sausage and measure in cups. This one is written for an Irish kitchen, where béchamel is called white sauce and the oven is fan-assisted. It serves six.
Nothing here is difficult, so it suits a beginner. Unlike most pasta dishes it's slow, but most of that time is the ragu looking after itself, and you can build the whole dish a day ahead.
What makes a good lasagne?
A good lasagne cuts into clean layers. On the plate you should see ragu, béchamel and pasta as separate bands, each one thick enough to hold its edge.
Ingredients for a lasagne recipe that serves six
Prep: 30 minutes | Cook: about 2 hours 40 minutes | Rest: 10 to 15 minutes | Total: about 3 hours 20 minutes | Serves: 6
Difficulty: Easy lasagne, but slow | Equipment: large deep pan, medium pan, whisk, 30 x 20cm ovenproof dish, foil
Ragu ingredients
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2 tbsp olive oil
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100g pancetta or unsmoked streaky bacon, finely diced
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1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 celery stick, all finely chopped
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3 garlic cloves, crushed
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500g Irish beef mince
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250g pork mince (or use all beef)
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150ml dry red wine (or extra beef stock)
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2 tbsp tomato purée
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2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
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200ml beef stock
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100ml whole milk
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1 tsp dried oregano and 1 tsp dried thyme
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A small handful of fresh basil, torn
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A pinch of chilli flakes (optional)
Béchamel ingredients
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75g butter
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75g plain flour
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750ml whole milk
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A generous grating of nutmeg
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Salt and black pepper
Assembly ingredients
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About 250g dried sheets
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125g mozzarella, torn (or reserve cheddar)
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80g Parmesan cheese, grated, split between the béchamel and the top
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A little butter for greasing
Choose a dish about 30 x 20cm and at least 6cm deep. A shallow one forces you to cut layers, and the layers are the point.
How to make ragu for lasagne
Soften the soffritto, sear the mince, then cook the ragu slowly for at least 90 minutes.
Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan over a medium heat and cook the pancetta for about 4 minutes, until the fat runs. A good extra virgin oil suits this step well, because the oil is the first flavour in the pan.
The soffritto comes next. Cook the onion, carrot and celery gently for 10 minutes until soft, then add the crushed cloves for the final minute. Many home ragus taste thin because this step was rushed.
Turn the heat up, add beef mince and pork mince and brown it hard. Let it catch a little on the base of the pan, because that dark crust gives the ragu its savoury flavour.
Once the mince is dark, pour in the wine, let it bubble until almost gone, then stir in the tomato purée, tomatoes, stock and dried herbs. Tinned tomatoes carry the whole ragu, so buy well. Organic chopped tomatoes from our pantry shelf are a sensible place to start.
From here it's patience. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, partly covered, for at least 1 hour 30 minutes. About halfway through, stir in the milk for a velvety finish.
The ragu is ready when a spoon dragged across the base leaves a trail that closes slowly. Season with salt and pepper, tear in the fresh leaves and take it off the heat. If it still pools, give it another 15 minutes.
Can you use ready-made bolognese for lasagne?
Yes. On a short evening, cook your mince in a hot pan, then pour over handmade Kilkenny bolognese sauce and cook it for a further 10 minutes, as the label suggests. It won't taste like a ragu cooked for an hour and a half, but a good béchamel and careful layering still make a lasagne worth sitting down to.
How to make a vegetarian lasagne
For a vegetarian lasagne recipe, swap the mince for cooked green lentils and use vegetable stock in place of beef stock. Our journal has a lentil lasagne worth following if you want a complete vegetarian version.
How to make béchamel for lasagne
Béchamel is three ingredients and about ten minutes: equal weights of butter and flour, and ten times that in milk. Most home lasagnes go wrong at this stage.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for a minute or two, until you have a smooth, bubbling paste with no raw smell. Add the milk a little at a time and whisk constantly so no lumps form. Keep whisking over a gentle heat for 5 to 8 minutes, until it turns glossy and coats the back of a spoon.
Remove from the heat. Real Parmigiano Reggiano brings a salty, savoury bite that a tub can't match, so grate 50g of it fresh and stir it through with the nutmeg, then season to taste. Béchamel should be seasoned well enough to eat with a spoon, because the sheets and ragu will mute it.
If it goes lumpy, a minute with the whisk off the heat usually rescues it. If it thickens while it waits, loosen it with a splash of milk and press baking parchment onto the surface to stop a skin forming.
Should an Irish lasagne use béchamel or ricotta?
Choose béchamel: it sets firmer, slices cleaner and gives the ragu something creamy to push against.
Italy's classic Bolognese lasagne layers ragu with béchamel, and the top UK and Irish recipes follow it. Ricotta is the lighter alternative, common in American versions and some Irish ones.
Our own Auntie Denise Sweeney does both. Her lasagne, from her 1987 cookbook The Radio 2 Pennywise Kitchen Pop Diary, layers ricotta or cottage cheese through the beef and finishes with a cheddar-laced béchamel sharpened with mustard. If you want to borrow the idea, a reserve cheddar such as Horgans Reserve Irish Cheddar folds happily into a warm béchamel and gives it a sharper edge. You can read her full family lasagne in our journal.
Do lasagne sheets need boiling first?
Only if the pack says so. This is the fourth thing: the match between your sheets and your ragu. Dried sheets drink liquid from the ragu as they cook, so they want a ragu that only just passes the spoon test. Fresh pasta sheets release moisture of their own, so they need one cooked a little past it, or the dish turns watery.
What American recipes call lasagna noodles are the sheets you buy here, and the pack matters more than the type. Some dried sheets go straight into the dish with no pre-cooking, and others need boiling first. De Cecco's guidance for its egg sheets (No112) is to lay them in raw with a looser ragu, because the pasta has to absorb moisture to cook. Our De Cecco egg lasagne sheets list a 24-minute cooking time, and Auntie Denise, who swears by them, boils hers before layering.
How to layer lasagne for slices that stand up
Divide the ragu and the béchamel into four portions each. You're building four layers of sheets. Three is the minimum, and four gives you the look and the bite of a lasagne. Go much deeper in a shallow dish and the pasta struggles to cook through.
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Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (200°C conventional, gas mark 6) and lightly grease the lasagne dish with butter. If your pack says to boil the sheets first, do that now and drain them well.
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Spread one portion of ragu thinly over the base. It stops the first sheets sticking and drying out.
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Lay a single layer of sheets on top and snap them to fit.
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Add a portion of ragu, then a portion of béchamel, then another layer of sheets. Repeat that sequence twice more, which gives you four layers of sheets in all. Reach the corners every time, because they dry out first.
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Finish with the last portion of béchamel, spread right to the edges so no pasta is left bare. Bare pasta dries into crisps.
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Scatter over the torn mozzarella and sprinkle on the rest of the Parmesan.
How long does lasagne take in the oven?
Lasagne takes 40 to 45 minutes at 180°C fan: 25 minutes covered with foil, then 15 to 20 uncovered, until the top is golden and the edges bubble. It's done when it's piping hot all the way through, with steam rising from the centre when you slide a knife in.
Foil keeps the top from colouring before the middle is hot, and uncovering lets the top set and colour.
Cooking from the fridge, allow a little longer and check the centre is piping hot before you serve. A frozen lasagne is best defrosted overnight in the fridge first.
How long does lasagne need to rest?
Leave it for 10 to 15 minutes before you cut. Ten minutes lets the béchamel set so the layers hold, and 15 is better if the kitchen can wait. Cut straight from the oven and the layers slide apart, however good the recipe.
It's the cheapest improvement in the whole method.
Why is my lasagne watery, and how do I fix it?
Four causes, in the order they usually happen. Each one is quick to fix once you know what to look for, and three of the four are settled before the dish ever reaches the oven.
A thin ragu
Pass the spoon test above before you assemble. A meat sauce that is still loose has nowhere to go but out, and a layered lasagne can't be thickened.
Using the wrong sheets
Boiled sheets carry water into the dish. Drain them well and dry them on a clean tea towel before layering. Matching fresh and dried sheets to your ragu is covered above.
A thin béchamel
A thin béchamel doesn't stay in its layer. It runs into the ragu and leaves a pool at the bottom of the dish, so make sure it passes the spoon test in the béchamel method before it goes in.
Cutting lasagne too soon
Cut hot, a lasagne hasn't set and the liquid floods the plate, so give it the full 10 to 15 minutes described above.
What to serve with lasagne
A lasagne this rich wants something sharp and something to mop with.
Bread and salad to serve with lasagne
A crisp green salad with a sharp dressing cuts through the richness, and garlic bread is expected in most Irish houses. Split a loaf of freshly baked bread, butter it generously and put it in the oven while the lasagne rests.
What red wine goes with lasagne?
Almost any Italian red works with lasagne, but Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is the easy choice: juicy cherry fruit and enough freshness to stand up to tomato. Terrana Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is one we stock, and there are plenty more bottles in our red wine collection. If you've made a white-style lasagne instead, a crisp Pinot Grigio suits the creamier layers better.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much mince per person for lasagne?
This recipe uses 750g for six, so about 125g each. For two people, divide everything by three and use a small dish.
Can I make lasagne ahead or freeze it?
Yes. Build it, cover it and keep it in the fridge for up to a day. For the freezer, make the ragu and béchamel, allow to cool completely, then assemble, wrap tightly, label with the date and freeze uncooked. It keeps its best quality for 3 to 4 months, though the béchamel can separate slightly. Defrost it overnight in the fridge, never on the counter, and cook it within 24 hours of thawing. From frozen, allow roughly 45 minutes longer in the oven.
Leftovers should be in the fridge within two hours of cooking, split into shallow portions so they cool quickly, and eaten within three days. Reheat only once, until piping hot all the way through, with steam rising from the centre.
Can you make lasagne in 30 minutes?
Not honestly. The oven time alone is 40 to 45 minutes. The shortcut ragu above brings the whole dish to under an hour and a half.
What is a white lasagne?
It skips the tomato ragu and layers béchamel with ingredients such as spinach and mushrooms.
What are the most common lasagne mistakes?
Four cause most of the damage: a loose ragu, a thin béchamel, cutting too soon and sheets that don't suit the ragu. Fresh sheets turn it watery, and dry ones go hard if the ragu is too thick. The watery and sheets sections above show the fixes.
What is the secret to a good lasagne?
Time, mostly. Season the béchamel boldly, give the soffritto its full 10 minutes and let the ragu cook for the full hour and a half, with milk added halfway for a velvety finish. If you want one secret ingredient, it's the milk.
Best ingredients for lasagne in Ireland
Keep it simple and buy well: Irish beef mince, good tinned tomatoes, dried pasta you trust and a wedge of cheese you'd happily eat on its own. The olives, pastes and other Italian pantry staples sit together in our Italian ingredients collection, which is the easiest place to start your shopping list.
Make it on a Sunday, cut it late, and Tuesday's lunch is sorted.
