This is how to make a lasagna from scratch in one pot with layers!! It's so easy and so delicious and you'll amaze your family and friends when you tell them you made it in one pot! (Well, one pan...). This is a quick version so the ingredients for the filling is a basic mix that is cooked fairly quickly. You can use your favourite bolognaise recipe instead if you want, and cook it long and slow.
1beef bouillon stock cube(or substitute with chicken)
2tbsptomato paste
1tspdried Italian herb mix(Note 2)
1/2tspsalt
Black pepper
Sauce Flavourings
1tspdried Italian herb mix(Note 2)
1/2tspgarlic powder(or 1 crushed garlic clove)
1/2tspsalt
Black pepper
Lasagna
4sheets dried lasagna
1 to 2cupsgrated mozzarella cheese
1tbspparsley, finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Heat olive oil in a medium size, deep fry pan over medium high heat. (Note 3)
Add garlic and onion, sauté until onion is translucent - about 3 minutes.
Turn up heat to high. Add beef and cook, breaking it up with the spatula, until nicely browned.
Add HALF the bottle of tomato passata (reserve remainder for Sauce). Then add remaining Filling ingredients. Bring to rapid simmer, then turn down to medium high. Let it simmer for around 5 minutes to let the flavours come together and the liquid to reduce. Stir occasionally.
Add Sauce Flavourings into the tomato passata bottle and shake to combine.
Assemble lasagna (see photo below)
Remove fry pan from the stove. Slide one lasagna sheet, starting from the side, under the Filling - this will be the base of the lasagna. Use a spoon to push it down and cover it in Filling. Break up pieces of lasagne and slide them in under the filling around the sides of the pan (to form the remainder of the bottom layer), using a spoon to push them down and cover with Filling.
Cover the Filling with the remaining lasagna sheets.
Pour over the Sauce and spread over the top. Sprinkle with cheese.
Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake for a further 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly and golden. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes to set.
Sprinkle with parsley (if using), then serve.
Notes
1. Tomato passata is just plain pureed tomato and comes in tall bottles. It is widely used in Italian cooking and becoming more and more well known here in Australia and the UK. In Australia you will find it in the pasta section of supermarkets along with tomato paste and bottled pasta sauces and costs around the same as canned tomato. You can buy passata in Walmart in America.You can make your own by pureeing canned crushed tomato. Or you can substitute with plain, unseasoned pureed tomato (comes in cans) BUT the flavour is more intense than passata because it has been cooked. So reduce the amount you use by 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup of water to the pureed tomato (this will make it more like passata in flavour and consistency).Do not substitute with ketchup or tomato sauce - both of these are seasoned and the flavour is not right for this dish! 2. If you don't have an Italian herb mix on hand, just substitute with a combination of dried parsley, oregano, thyme or basil (whatever you have).3. The fry pan I used was 26cm / 10" in diameter and 6cm/2.4" deep.4. Nutrition per serving assumes 1 cup of mozzarella cheese is used for the topping. The calories in this are less than traditional lasagna because a) there is no béchamel sauce; and b) there are only 2 layers of lasagna sheets.