A Family Favourite

Once I'd married my husband, I had one more important obligation to fulfil ... find a great Lasagne recipe. The way to a man's heart is meant to be through his stomach and so once I'd snagged him I had to make sure I could keep him by making the best lasagne, as it is his favourite meal!

Teaching in Tanzania, a lot of my fellow workers at the school and other missionaries living there were from Australia and New Zealand. They all seemed to have a very basic but reliable cook book on hand and would swear by all the recipes, The Edmonds Cookery Book. At first glance, I wasn't overly impressed. There aren't many pictures and I'm definitely a  picture person when it comes to cookbooks. However, the more I was cooked meals from it, the more I realised what a staple cookbook this would be in anyones collection, full of basics and tips, first published over 100 years ago in 1907. When I back-packed round New Zealand back in 2001, one of my first stops was a book shop to get my own copy and it's definitely going to come with me wherever I move to too!

On my search for a good lasagne recipe I thought I'd check in with this reliable collection of recipes first and we loved it so much, I've never tried an alternative one. It fast became a family favourite and a friend of ours who is known for being a great cook and caterer has even asked me for my recipe because she rates it so highly ... what more can I say?!

Since we moved to the States, our oven has taken progressively longer and longer to cook the same meals. 15 min bake cookies were taking an hour by the beginning of February this year! Shortly afterwards, it would only turn on over a certain temperature until it finally gave up the will to live by the end of February! One of the drawbacks has been no lasagne's until the oven was replaced at the end of last week ... I'm pleased to say that it's back on the menu again now (along with a lot of other meals we haven't been able to eat recently!)

Anytime we cook lasagne we always do a double batch and then freeze one of them before the last bake ... ensuring yumminess on hand when we need it, either if we're having a bad or busy day or if someone else needs a meal! The never ending supply certainly keeps the hubby happy too!

Meat Sauce

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 500g/1lb minced beef
• 100g mushrooms, chopped
• 2 x 400g cans diced tomatoes
• 1 cup tomato puree
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt & pepper

1. Heat oil, add onion & garlic - cook til golden
2. Add meat & brown
3. Add rest of meat sauce ingredients
4. Simmer for 40 mins

Cheese Sauce

• 50g butter
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup cheese, grated
• salt & pepper
• 2 Tbsp parmesan, grated

1. Melt butter & add flour - cook til frothy
2. Gradually add milk til it boils & thickens
3. Stir in cheese & season with salt and pepper

Layer in Lasagne tray ... I always start with lasagne ... then meat, lasagne, cheese, lasagne, meat, lasagne, cheese ... then sprinkle with parmesan! Bake for about 20 mins or until golden at 350/180. (It's meant to make enough for 4-6 servings ... depending on portion size! With Mark around it's definitely more like 4!!)