Quest for Pasta Pefection #2: Lasagne

We embarked on another cooking adventure when the Cheungs invited us over for a night of gluttony and bad music a.k.a. an Idol dinner party. We made lasagne as our contribution to the pot luck dinner. This recipe was adapted from a Jamie Oliver cookbook.

For the pasta sauce:
olive oil
6 rashers of bacon, sliced
a pinch of cinnamon
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 handfuls of herbs - sage, oregano, thyme
500g beef mince
200g pork mince
2x400g tins of peeled tomatoes
2 glasses of red wine
2 bay leaves

Fry the bacon and cinnamon until golden before adding the onion, carrot, garlic and herbs.

Add the meat and cook for 5 minutes, then add the tomatoes and wine. Simmer for about an hour (This sauce is great on its own with pasta and I think it tastes better the longer you leave it).

Butternut pumpkin: Peel and roughly chop one butternut pumpkin and rub with olive oil, salt, pepper, ground coriander seeds and chilli flakes. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.

For the white sauce mix together:
500 mL sour cream (Soo bad but soo good! I guess you can subtitute low fat sour cream...)
2 handfuls of grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
milk to lighten mixture

To assemble the lasagne:
Start with a layer of lasagne sheets and cover with meat, white sauce and some parmesan.

Top with another layer of pasta and subtitute the meat with a layer of pumpkin that has been smashed. Sprinkle with white sauce and parmesan. Repeat the layering with lasagne sheet, meat sauce, white sauce and parmesan, finishing with a layer of pasta covered in white sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan cheese over the top.

Bake in a 200 degree oven for about half an hour or until golden on top.

Dinner consisted of our lasagne, roast chicken with a fig and walnut bread-chunk stuffing (from the Dang's i.e. Patrick) and the Cheungs provided a mixed veggie salad to balance out all the meat, carbs and grease.

Our feast in front of the telly.

For dessert we had year-old wedding cake that the Cheungs kept for their one year anniversary (awww). Keeping true to the FFL mantra we had more food than we could eat and spent the night like beached whales on the Cheung's couch commentating on the atrocious outfits worn by the Idol contestants.