This Rigatoni Lasagne is an excellent dish if you’re having people over for dinner. You can cook it over a couple of days, in stages, so that by the time your guests come, all you have to do is pop it in the oven and get it on the table.
Cooking this rigatoni lasagne seems complex, but it’s very easy, just different bits to get together. Because I use rigatoni, it’s easier to make and rougher in texture than the traditional lasagne, less slimy and more robust. It is so rich and tasty and not low carb or low cal. That’s why it’s so amazing.
Groovy Rigatoni Lasagne
Love lasagna so much? Try this groovy rigatoni lasagne recipe for a change. This has the similar taste, but with better pasta used.
Ingredients
Meat Sauce Ingredients
1 cup celery stalks - diced
1 cup green onions (scallions or green shallots) - diced
1 cup mushrooms - roughly chopped
½ cup carrots - diced
1 kilogram ground beef (minced beef)
3 cans tomato - chopped
1 can tomato paste
½ glass red wine
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 dash ground black pepper
3 small bay leaf (bay leaves)
¼ cube beef stock (beef broth or beef bouillon)
Béchamel Sauce Ingredients
¼ slab butter
6 tablespoons all purpose flour (plain flour Australia and UK)
3 cups milk
Cheese Topping Ingredients
250 grams Ricotta cheese
100 grams Mozzarella cheese - grated- 100 grams parmesan - grated
Pasta Ingredients
- 500 grams rigatoni
Instructions
Meat Sauce Instructions
- Heat some olive oil in a big pot.
- Add in the celery, onions and carrots.
- You only need it to soften, not brown, so just 10 minutes on a low-ish heat.
- When it’s soft, add in the mushrooms and the meat mince.
- Brown the mince, so stir around constantly. When the mince is brown, throw in the red wine.
- Then the chopped tomato. Give it all a stir. Add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, bay leaves, stock cube, and tomato ketchup. Stir and cover.
- Turn down the heat so the flame is small, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove the cover, stir, and let it sit and cook in its own heat.
Béchamel Sauce Instructions
- Melt half of the butter (total of a quarter of a slab) you’re going to use in a pan – and keep the flame low.
- Add in sifted flour. Stir until the butter and flour have bonded and formed a putty-like texture (should be about 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour).
- Keep adding the flour until you get the putty.
- When you have the putty, add 1/3 cup of milk and stir until there are few lumps and the milk and putty have integrated.
- Add another batch of milk and keep doing this and stirring till you’ve used 11/2 cups. You should end up with a smooth sauce, not too runny, like custard consistency.
Pasta Instructions
- Boil a pan of water and add a teaspoon of salt and olive oil.
- When boiling, throw in the pasta; it should take about 10 minutes to cook (don’t overcook!).
- Remove from the heat, rinse in cold water.
- Let it cool down.
Assembly Instructions
- If you are not using a non-stick baking tray, wipe it over with olive oil or butter. Line the bottom of the tray with pasta.
- Cover the pasta with a layer of meat sauce.
- Pour a layer of béchamel over the meat sauce.
- Add another layer of pasta and add the béchamel.
- Crumble the ricotta over the whole tray
- Add a layer of meat sauce (meat sauce on top for baking protects the creamy béchamel). Cover liberally with the grated cheese.
- Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
- When hot, pop in your very heavy tray of yum
- It will need 45 minutes to an hour to heat through and for the cheese to melt.
- To brown it, turn up the heat in the final 5 minutes.
Nutrition
Calories: 601kcalCarbohydrates: 51gProtein: 40gFat: 25gSaturated Fat: 11gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 100mgSodium: 490mgPotassium: 884mgFiber: 3gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 1835IUVitamin C: 7mgCalcium: 383mgIron: 4mg
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