1cupgreen onions (scallions or green shallots) - diced
1cupmushrooms - roughly chopped
½cupcarrots - diced
1kilogramground beef (minced beef)
3canstomato - chopped
1cantomato paste
½glassred wine
3tablespoonsolive oil
1dashground black pepper
3smallbay leaf (bay leaves)
¼cubebeef stock (beef broth or beef bouillon)
Béchamel Sauce Ingredients
¼slabbutter
6tablespoonsall purpose flour (plain flour Australia and UK)
3cupsmilk
Cheese Topping Ingredients
250gramsRicotta cheese
100gramsMozzarella cheese - grated
100gramsparmesan - grated
Pasta Ingredients
500gramsrigatoni
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.