Come dine with me

Tomorrow evening I shall be hosting a dinner party with my boyfriend James for our friends Gina, Ben, my younger sister Amy and her boyfriend Adam. I am cooking two lasagnes from scratch- one meat and one vegetarian as Gina does not eat red meat, but atleast there will be second helpings for the rest of us or an alternative option which I think is nice.
I shall serve the Lasagne with fresh salad, deli coleslaw and a nice piece of  french bread on the side accompanied by red wine and various other drinks for dessert...(I presume)
Adam insists I should bake some of my famous vanilla cupcakes which I will serve as an after dinner treat (providing I have time). All in all it promises to be a fabulous evening with good food and good company. (What more could you wish for?)

Here is my lasagne recipe incase you want to try it yourself. Bon appetit!

I use:

450g lean mince
Lasagne verdi (around 8 sheets should be enough- and I think the green looks prettier)

Medium onion chopped 

150g ish (about 5 medium) mushrooms, chopped

Tin chopped tomatoes

Italian herbs

Veg oxo cub

3 cloves of garlic (well its usually 2 but i luuurvee garlic and it keeps the vampires away ;)

Salt and ground pepper to taste

Tomato puree

Chop onion and soften in olive oil (or veg oil whatever you have).  Add mince and brown. Add tomatoes and herbs (about 2 tsp but depends on your taste).  Crumble in the oxo and add 200ml boiled water (from kettle), 2 tablespoons tom puree and stir.  Add the chopped mushrooms.  Bring to the boil and then turn down and leave to simmer for at least 50 mins stirring occasionally.  The sauce should reduce and get thicker, but if it gets too thick add a bit more water – or even better a splash of red wine!

For the vegetarian option- basically the same method except instead of cooking the meat, roast vegetables in the oven for 45mins using olive oil to keep the vegatables moist. I use 1 aubergine chopped, 2 medium courgettes, 1 can of tinned chopped tomatoes, 150g mushrooms, 1 onion, 50g black olives and I add mozzerella in addition to the cheese sauce.

When the sauce is cooked make up the cheese sauce:  knob of butter/marg – melt in pan.  Take off heat and add a couple of tsp cornflour or flour to form into a paste.  Add milk gradually (not over the heat), about ¾ pint and constantly stir until it thickens.  Grate in cheddar cheese and stir until melted.

Put together lasagne by putting a layer of meat first, then lasagne sheets, then meat sauce and cheese sauce and lasagne so you have three layers – the thirds layer of lasagne sheets should only have cheese sauce on top then grate some more cheese on top of that!

Once you have put it all together you can let it cool down and cover with foil and put in fridge.  Cook in the oven on about 160ºC for about 45 mins – you can judge by see that it has browned and also if you inserted a knife in the pasta to make sure it is soft…if the pasta still seems it needs a little longer but it has gone brown, cover over with the foil and cook for another 10-15 mins.  You’ll know!

Happy cooking!

Until next time,

Hollie xoxo