Lasagna

This recipe combines

Spaghetti Bolognese Béchamel

Lasagna looks like the most ambitious dish here, but it's really an assembly job: a rich meat sauce (Bolognese) and a creamy white sauce (béchamel), layered with pasta and baked until golden and bubbling. This page gives you all three parts in one place — the Bolognese, the béchamel, and the layering — so you don't have to jump between recipes. Both sauces also stand on their own, and you can find them on their own pages.

Serves 8

Ingredients

For the Bolognese

• 2 lbs ground beef
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup beef stock
• 2 bay leaves

For the béchamel

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk, warmed
• Salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg

To assemble

• 12 lasagna noodles, cooked according to package instructions
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella
• ½ cup grated Parmesan

Bolognese is a meat sauce built from ground beef rather than a whole cut. Because ground meat has no connective tissue to break down, it doesn't need hours of low heat — it's simmered, not truly braised, just long enough for the flavors to come together. Béchamel is milk thickened with a cooked paste of butter and flour (a roux); it takes its body from the roux, not from reducing.

Roasting & Baking

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Frying in the Oven→

Method

Make the Bolognese

Season the ground beef with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat and brown the beef in crumbles. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and cook until softened, about 8 minutes, then stir in the tomato paste and cook 1 minute. Add the red wine and let it reduce by half, scraping up the browned bits. Add the crushed tomatoes, beef stock, and bay leaves, bring to a simmer, and cook uncovered 1½–2 hours, until thick and glossy. Discard the bay leaves.

Make the béchamel

While the Bolognese simmers, make the béchamel: Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, whisk in the flour, and cook, stirring constantly, for 1–2 minutes, until the raw flour smell cooks off — this is your roux. Slowly whisk in the warm milk, a little at a time at first, whisking out any lumps before adding more. Continue cooking, whisking often, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5–7 minutes, then season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.

Assemble and bake

Preheat the oven to 350°F and spread a thin layer of Bolognese on the bottom of a baking dish. Layer noodles, then Bolognese, then béchamel, then a scattering of mozzarella, repeating until the ingredients are used up and finishing with a layer of béchamel topped generously with mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake another 15–20 minutes, until golden and bubbling. Let rest 10–15 minutes before cutting — this keeps the layers from sliding apart.