Something to cook for Valentine’s day. My husband’s favorite pasta dish has got to be lasagna. Whenever we have guests, he makes this special request and I tell him that it gets to be boring. Well, I think lasagna is an all-time favorite for most pinoys. Lasagna involves three steps: The tomato meat sauce, boiling the pasta and the preparation of the bechamel sauce.
Let’s make the Bechamel sauce first:
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cans evaporated milk (i can is equivalent to 225 ml or 1 cup)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Cooking the Bechamel Sauce
1. Melt butter in a pan.
2. Blend in flour until bubbly.
3. Gradually stir in evaporated milk
4. Cook until bubbly and a bit thick. Make sure not to burn the milk by lowering the flame.
5. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg
6. Set aside.
Now the Tomato Meat sauce
Ingredients
1 box lasagna pasta (500 grams)
3/4 kilo ground beef
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup butter
4 cloves garlic, crushed
6 tablespoon white wine (optional)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoon basil leaves, shredded
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cans tomato paste (150 grams each) dissolved in 1 cup beef broth or water
shredded mozzarella cheese to add in between layers and for topping
To cook the Tomato Meat sauce
1. Heat olive oil and butter.
2. Brown the garlic, add the onions and cook until soft.
3. Put in the ground beef, wine, and spice
4. Allow to cook for a while then pour in the beef broth (1 cup) and tomato paste mixture.
5. Simmer gently until thick. A little flour may be needed to thicken the suace.
6. Set aside.
Prepare the pasta
1. Boil 9 lasagna pasta based on the cooking directions in the box. The directions says “boil for 9 minutes”
2. Plunge in cold water.
3. Dry on Towel. Set aside.
Arrange in the pyrex dish
1. Grease a rectangular dish (around 10 inches x 7inches) with butter.
2. Pour 1/3 of bechamel sauce.
3. Arrange a layer of pasta. Spoon in tomato meat sauce and sprinkle with cheese.
4. Repeat number 3. End with bechamel sauce on the top layer.
5. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake 350 F until golden brown.
7. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes to set.
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