The first time I discovered lasagna was at the extinct Milano’s Restaurant at Thomson Plaza. The elder brother had a craving for pizza and it was one of the more accessible pizza joints around the neighbourhood. Before thin crust came along in the noughties, Milano's was one of those rare pizza restaurants that got the crust thickness just right. For us, having pizza back in the 80s was quite a bit of a luxury compared to present day, considering you could still get hawker food for about $1.50 and pizzas back then already cost close to 20 bucks. It’s a pity that Milano’s has shut down(I think it was in the early 90s due to competition from other new pizza restaurants popping up all over the city) because they were actually one of the few local joints that served rather decent Italian food. To my disappointment of course. :( If only someone would resurrect the place!
Anyway, back to lasagna….I didn’t know what kind of dish it was before when my brother ordered it until it came to our table. There's nothing quite like sinking your spoon into the gooey layers of hot melted cheese, minced beef and pasta, chomping down on the whole works and the burst of wonderful meaty goodness whilst you try not to scald your tongue on the cheese and filling.
What can I say? Fattening food always tastes good!
So here’s a recipe I kind of concocted whilst trying to finish up the leftovers of lasagna noodles from my previous experiment. It tastes a lot better this time round(mainly because I parboiled the lasagna noodles despite the packet saying no need to pre-cook but you really can’t trust these instructions all the time).
Instead of pure beef, I’ve made a half and half mixture of beef and pork mince… and trust me, it’s actually twice as yummy!
Ingredients:
150 g minced beef
150 g minced pork
1 bottle of Prego Fresh Mushroom Pasta sauce
Chopped garlic
100 ml beef stock (I used Campbell’s)
Italian Herb seasoning (about 1-2tsp)
1/2 tsp Parsley seasoning
Black pepper to taste (the more the merrier)
Lasagna Sheets (I used the 20cm by 5 cm ones)
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Marinade for beef and pork:
2 tbsp Soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp pepper
Dash of sugar
Instructions:
Marinate the minced beef and pork and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Stir-fry the garlic over low heat for about 30 seconds till it turns fragrant. Add in the marinated minced beef and pork and stir fry till till 3/4 cooked. You will see liquid coming out of the meat but don’t panic. Add in the beef stock, let simmer for 1 minute, then add in the Prego sauce. Cook for about 2-3 more minutes, add the italian herb, parsley and black pepper to taste. It should actually be quite salty already considering you’ve added the stock and the sauce and there really isn’t any need to add more salt at this point in time. The meat sauce should be done after the short simmer.
In the meantime, parboil the lasagna noodles in boiling water in a wok (it only takes about less than a minute otherwise it’ll disintegrate). Remove the sheets.
In a 20 cm by 20 cm square tin, scoop the prepared meat sauce into the pan until it about covers the surface area(don’t go crazy making sure the meat covers every corner otherwise you might run out of meat sauce too fast). Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the meat sauce, then mozzarella cheese(you can choose to go crazy at this point if you’re a cheese lover). Cover the cheese with a piece of lasagna noodle (you need to cut the noodle to fit it in the square tin). Repeat for the next few layers until all the meat is used up(I made about 4 layers altogether). You should end off with a pasta noodle and parmesan and mozzarella cheese right at the top.
Stick it in the oven at 220 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes until you see the melted cheese crust turning into a lovely golden brown. Remove and serve.
Anyway, back to lasagna….I didn’t know what kind of dish it was before when my brother ordered it until it came to our table. There's nothing quite like sinking your spoon into the gooey layers of hot melted cheese, minced beef and pasta, chomping down on the whole works and the burst of wonderful meaty goodness whilst you try not to scald your tongue on the cheese and filling.
What can I say? Fattening food always tastes good!
So here’s a recipe I kind of concocted whilst trying to finish up the leftovers of lasagna noodles from my previous experiment. It tastes a lot better this time round(mainly because I parboiled the lasagna noodles despite the packet saying no need to pre-cook but you really can’t trust these instructions all the time).
Instead of pure beef, I’ve made a half and half mixture of beef and pork mince… and trust me, it’s actually twice as yummy!
Ingredients:
150 g minced beef
150 g minced pork
1 bottle of Prego Fresh Mushroom Pasta sauce
Chopped garlic
100 ml beef stock (I used Campbell’s)
Italian Herb seasoning (about 1-2tsp)
1/2 tsp Parsley seasoning
Black pepper to taste (the more the merrier)
Lasagna Sheets (I used the 20cm by 5 cm ones)
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Marinade for beef and pork:
2 tbsp Soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp pepper
Dash of sugar
Instructions:
Marinate the minced beef and pork and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Stir-fry the garlic over low heat for about 30 seconds till it turns fragrant. Add in the marinated minced beef and pork and stir fry till till 3/4 cooked. You will see liquid coming out of the meat but don’t panic. Add in the beef stock, let simmer for 1 minute, then add in the Prego sauce. Cook for about 2-3 more minutes, add the italian herb, parsley and black pepper to taste. It should actually be quite salty already considering you’ve added the stock and the sauce and there really isn’t any need to add more salt at this point in time. The meat sauce should be done after the short simmer.
In the meantime, parboil the lasagna noodles in boiling water in a wok (it only takes about less than a minute otherwise it’ll disintegrate). Remove the sheets.
In a 20 cm by 20 cm square tin, scoop the prepared meat sauce into the pan until it about covers the surface area(don’t go crazy making sure the meat covers every corner otherwise you might run out of meat sauce too fast). Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the meat sauce, then mozzarella cheese(you can choose to go crazy at this point if you’re a cheese lover). Cover the cheese with a piece of lasagna noodle (you need to cut the noodle to fit it in the square tin). Repeat for the next few layers until all the meat is used up(I made about 4 layers altogether). You should end off with a pasta noodle and parmesan and mozzarella cheese right at the top.
Stick it in the oven at 220 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes until you see the melted cheese crust turning into a lovely golden brown. Remove and serve.