February 17, 2017
Friday Flavour: White Sauce Lasagna
Bored with making the regular tomato-based lasagna? I hereby recommend you to toss out the tomato altogether and make your lasagna without it.
Yes, really! It works.
You see, one fine day, I got bored with the same old shit recipe. I must have opened and closed my drawer of stashed ingredients a hundred times and each time I closed the drawer, I was left feeling very uninspired. I’m sure you understand those moments.
And like every other day I am at a loss of what to cook to feed the hungry tummies in our household.
Asking Silver Bullet and the kids what they want to eat was met with “I don’t knows”. Squirt, on the other hand, was happy to have hagelslags (chocolate sprinklers) and cheese for dinner.Every day if he could. But that’s just not done.
I then thought of lasagna but I did not have any tomatoes. So what’s a bored, uninspired mom to do with only lasagna noodles, minced beef, creme fraiche and cream cheese as the main ingredients with no tomatoes to speak of? She gets creative!
A little bit of this, a little bit of that, a splash of something and a dash of that…and we have a fantastic meal to feed the hungry!
- 300g ground meat
- 1 onion – chopped
- 2 cloves garlic – minced
- 4-5 fresh basil leaves
- 2 tspn dried oregano
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 half tspn salt
- 2 capsicum bulbs – chopped
- 1 tbsp paprika powder
- Dry lasagna noodles
- 1 egg
- 1 pint ricotta or cottage cheese
- 1 half cup grated pecorino cheese
- 2 tbsp parsely
- 1 tspn salt
- 500g shredded mozarella cheese
- Grated Parmesan cheese for toppings
- 50g butter
- 40g plain flour
- 150 ml creme fraiche
- 80g cream cheese
- 1 cup milk
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Brown onion, garlic and minced meat in a skillet over medium heat with about 1 teaspoon of butter or oil and fry till the liquid from the meat is dry
- Mix in basil, oregano and brown sugar. Stir well.
- After about 3 minutes, add in capsicum and paprika powder. Mix thoroughly and simmer for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Meantime, pre-heat oven to about 190 degrees Celsius
- Melt butter over medium heat then stir in the flour and gradually add milk
- Mix in creme fraishe and cream cheese, then add the bay leaf with salt and pepper to taste.
- Simmer for about 5 minutes then add the white sauce to the meat.
- Stir well
- In a separate bowl, mix in egg, ricotta, half cup Parmesan cheese, parsley and 1 teaspoon of salt. Set aside
- In a baking dish, lay a few noodles to cover the bottom. Then layer it with the meat in white sauce and then the egg-ricotta-parmesan mix. Top with mozzarella and put more noodles on top. Repeat
- Top with remaining sauce and sprinkle additional mozzarella and Parmesan cheese as desired
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 30-40 minutes or till the top turns golden brown
- Let stand for 10 minutes before serving
- Feel free to add in more milk if you need to dilute the sauce in case it gets too thick
As always, I’m bringing this hearty dish to #FiestaFriday
Yum, I prefer white sauce over tomato sauce even on my pizza 🙂
I’ve made chicken and vegetable lasagna with white sauce before, but never with beef. Will try it next time. Love your cheeses – and you say you’ve got nothing in your pantry…
Really, on pizza? You don’t like tomato-based stuff?
You know Jas, running out of cheese in a Dutch-occupied home is a crime. We never run out of cheese; my husband and my son can’t live without them. Got cheese, can cook! Made cookies with those, too remember. :p
Heee…heheh…I always thought there’s nothing, but really there’s always some knick-knacks in my pantry. No one would ever go hungry in our home. 😀 😀 😀
My mom was the best at making something out of nothing. I got that trade from her and claim I can make you a yummy dish even if all you have are potatoes and onions.
Europeans don’t put much tomato sauce on their pizza and I like it like that. Here, they drench it in it and I can’t stand it.
It’s great to be able to make something out of nothing isn’t it? I love doing that too and it’s a good way not to be wasteful with food.
You are right about that; I like pizza that’s not drenched up in tomato sauce. I also don’t like (fresh) tomatoes, so I avoid them most of the time…
I haven’t tried white sauce in lasagna, but I am ready to try anything when it comes to pasta. This one looks so delicious! Thanks for coming to this week’s Fiesta Friday party and for bringing this along with you.
Thank you for stopping by, Jhuls! Hopefully you have the time to give it a shot, give it your signature twist and make it even better! We all can do with more than just a normal, boring lasagna! 😀
happy weekend!
This looks fantastic – I get tired of plain old lasagne! Even with a lot of variation in the sauces.
Right? Lasagna can get so boring sometimes…same with pasta dishes as well. I’m glad you thought this looks fantastic, though. Thank you, Frugal Hausfrau! 🙂