Food faves - Lasagne

A new place, a new job, a new start and an old favourite.  I am now officially a Norf Londoner, and have waved goodbye to Dave's mum's wonderful utensil-filled, fridge-stocked kitchen to my very own.  The moment I saw the kitchen, in fact, the flat had my name on it.  For a start it's twice the size of the living room, with more worktop space you can shake a stick at, just enough cupboard space for all my flours, spices and vinegars and best of all, a gas hob.  What more could you ask for. 

One of the first meals I cooked in my lovely kitchen is an old family favourite - Lasagne.  More British than Italian now I'm sure (with chips, seriously?), I've been eating this ever since I can remember.  Apparently my Dad got it from an the owner of an Italian restaurant he knew, or something like that, and I just love it.  It's one of those dishes that I just can't order in a restaurant for fear of it not tasting the way I like it, the way I grew up with. I'd go round to friends' houses when I was little and their Mums would  make lasagne, or shepherd's pie, but one bite in and I refused to eat anymore, because 'it doesn't taste like my mummy makes it'.  I think I wasn't allowed back to a lot of friends houses for sticking my foot in it like that.  

I've made very few changes to the way my Mum made my lasagne.  As you can see I make the pasta sheets myself, and I now add celery and carrots when I'm sweating the onions to give it even more of that delicious umami flavour.  I'm not going to write the recipe as I'm sure everyone has they're own, and it's so simple. I fry the onion mixture with combined with chopped peppers, bacon and mushrooms, add tomato puree and red wine, then minced beef, chopped tomatoes, mixed herbs and beef stock (not in exactly that order), and let it all simmer for as long as I can without gobbling it all up.  A couple of pasta sheets, a bit of bechamel sauce and a handful of cheese later and this layered dish of gorgeousness emerges from the oven to be devoured within seconds.  No matter how much of this stuff I make, it always seems to be eaten in one sitting.

Behold the messiness of my kitchen