Easy Eats: Spiced Lamb Lasagne
Thanks to a few shortcuts, this version of the Italian classic is fast enough to cook on a weeknight.
Kelly GibneyChef
- prepare
- cook
- 4 servings
- Easy
Caption:This lasagne combines spices and lamb mince for an unusual twist on the Italian classic.Photo credit:Kelly Gibney
Traditional lasagne can be time-consuming to make, but this one employs a few tricks to make it fast enough to cook after work.
Instead of spending time layering the different components, the sauce and pasta are combined in an easy, free-form layer and then the creamy béchamel sauce is poured on top, before being covered in mozzarella cheese and baked until golden.
Ingredients
- Oil for sautéing
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, diced
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 500g lamb mince
- 700g passata
- 1 cup beef stock
- 50g butter
- 1/4 cup flour
- 500ml milk
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 cup finely grated parmesan
- 300g instant dried lasagne sheets
- 1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C.
- Heat a generous drizzle of oil in a sauté pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so before adding the oregano, cumin, paprika and ground coriander. Cook for 1 minute, adding a little more oil if the pan is dry.
- Add the lamb mince, raise the heat to high and brown well, breaking apart the mince.
- Add the passata and beef stock. Bring to a boil, before the reducing to just under a boil (rapid simmer) and cooking for 10 minutes. The sauce will be very runny at this stage but the lasagne sheets will soak up a lot of the liquid.
- Break the lasagne sheets into quarters, it doesn’t need to be precise. Add the pasta to the pan, using tongs to separate the pieces so they don’t stick together too much. Cook the pasta in the sauce for 5 minutes, stirring often to separate the pieces. Spoon the meat, sauce and pasta into an ovenproof dish in an even layer.
- While the sauce is cooking, make the béchamel sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the flour and cook, whisking constantly for a minute or so, until the butter and flour has browned just slightly. Add the milk, 1 cup at a time, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Cook for a few minutes until thickened. Remove from the heat, add the nutmeg and parmesan. Taste and season well.
- Pour the béchamel sauce over the pasta and sauce, top with mozzarella and put into the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Ideally, let the lasagne sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.
