Between the sheets

Saturday night, 10 o’clock, dinner over, the x-box is working overtime in the bedroom, three boys are full-bellied and playing out the rest of the evening, we are sipping on some red wine and slipping the last of the plates into the dishwasher, wrapping the remaining portion of lasagne for a Sunday night leftover meal. Its simplicity never fails to please, the lasagne that is, it’s warming, wholesome and fulfilling. What could be a better meal for a bunch of ever-hungry teenagers or adults?  This simplistic dish however, takes a little forethought and planning to serve it at it’s very best. Let me take you back 24 hours to Friday night. The ragu, meat sauce, has been gently bubbling away for over an hour on the stove and will continue in its murmurings for another hour more until it is dark, thick and concentrated. The ragu is then put to one side to cool and left overnight, it'll intensify and mature in flavour as it marinates in it's juices until required for spreading between the pasta sheets, drizzled with bechamel sauce and baked in the oven to make the perfect lasagne. 

It’s quite ritualistic making this sauce, almost therapeutic. Maybe because as a young adolescent cook it would have been one of the first recipes I attempted and over time, as I have matured in years and in my cooking ability so this simple sauce has matured and developed with me. I certainly have a particular way of constructing a ragu, it can be quick and easy in its preparation but I like to take my time over it, sipping some wine, listening to some music as I carefully chop, stir and taste: very considered and rigid in its simple ingredients, I rarely deviate from the path. I have experimented with different meats: pork, beef, or a mixture, I have added chicken livers, red wine, white wine, used fresh tomato and tinned, played around with various herb combinations but I have now decided that this sauce is the one. It may not be traditionally Italian and may not be  as ‘mama’ would make (although in our household 'papa' always made the lasagne) but this recipe delivers a big rich flavour and smells terrific as it simmers gently in the kitchen, as yet I haven’t had any complaints. It is after all a very basic sauce but it's so worthwhile taking some time over it and using the best ingredients to make this lasagne recipe, as we all know ... it's what goes on between the sheets that really matters !

Lasagne al forno 

Serves 6 

• 500g lean, top quality minced beef 
• 1 onion 
• 2 celery sticks 
• 1 large carrot 
• 2 cloves garlic 
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves 
• 2 bay leaves 
• 300ml chicken stock 
• 100g tomato puree 
• 1 glass of red wine 
• 1 tsp sugar 
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar 
• 2 x 400g tins of tomato 
• Salt & pepper 
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 8 lasagne sheets 
• 50g parmesan cheese for grating 

Béchamel sauce 

• 600ml warm milk 
• 50g butter 
• 100g cheddar cheese 
• 1 tbsp flour 

I always use, where possible, organic vegetables and home made stock. Use an organic stock cube if you don’t have home made. I use the best tined tomato I can afford and a good full-bodied red wine, this is a large glass, about 1/3 of a bottle, cheers! 

Mise en place: everything in place. When preparing a recipe I like to have everything in place, all my ingredients lined up, chopped, sliced, crushed and ready. So begin by finely chopping the onion, carrot, and celery, thinly slice the garlic, warm the stock, grate the cheese, strip the leaves from the sprigs of thyme and pour the wine. In a large sauté pan gently soften the onion, carrot, celery and garlic in a little olive oil and cover, slowly soften without browning for 6 minutes or so and then turn the heat up slightly and carefully crumble the minced meat into the pan. Mix well so the meat starts to colour evenly then season with a little salt & pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add the thyme and bay leaves, the red wine vinegar and the sugar, cook for a few minutes longer until the vinegar has evaporated. Now add the tomato puree, mix well and add the red wine. Turn down the heat and cook for a while more until the wine is reduced and is barely remaining. Add the tinned tomato and the stock, stir well and turn the heat down to a slow simmer, the lowest setting you have, a very gentle lazy bubble. 

The ragu now needs to cook very slowly, a couple of hours, but you need to keep an eye on it and care for it through the cooking process, stirring every now and again and topping up with a little more stock, wine or water if more liquid is required and carefully adjusting the seasoning. When it is cooked it’ll be a thick, concentrated rich meaty sauce. This can now be left in the fridge ready for the next day or freeze it for another time. When it comes to making the lasagne, re-heat the meat ragu gently to loosen, as it would have solidified somewhat in the fridge. 

I always pre-cook my lasagne sheets. The ‘no pre-cooking required’ sheets that can be obtained always feel a bit stodgy and tough to me. So I use good quality dried lasagne sheets, pre cooked in boiling salted water for a few minutes and laid between tea towels until I need them. 

For the white, béchamel sauce, gently melt the butter in a pan, remove from the heat when bubbling and stir in the sifted flour until smooth, return the pan to the heat and let the flour ‘cook-out’ in the butter until it is puffy, stir all the time, don’t let it burn. Remove the pan from the heat; gently and gradually stir in the warm milk until you have a velvety smooth sauce the texture of double cream. Return to the heat and cook gently, stirring all the time until the sauce thickens, you can add more milk if required but I like the end result to have a consistency of custard. Season the sauce with salt & pepper then stir in the grated cheese. 

Now simply layer up all the elements but start with a thin layer of the ragu and some of the béchamel in the bottom of your ovenproof dish. Then a layer of lasagne sheets, some more ragu, more béchamel, lasagne and so on for four or five layers, pour the remaining béchamel all over the top to ‘seal’ and grate the Parmesan cheese evenly over. Place on a tray and in a medium oven, 180 degrees, for 30 minutes or until browned and crisp on the surface and bubbling around the sides of the dish.

How about it sweet cheeks

There is, it has to be said, a quietly indulgent sense of self-satisfaction that derives from the creation of something outstandingly delicious from the most meagre & humble of ingredients. Champagne flavour with a beer budget and there could be no more a humble ingredient than the long forgotten beef cheek. I was in Waitrose the other day and I was surprised to see some lovely looking beef cheeks at the butchers counter. The cheeks weighed in at a very respectable £4.35 (£4.49 per kg as of 4/01/2011)  for nearly a kg of meat enough for four or five very generous portions. It’s so refreshing to see a supermarket stocking obscure cheap cuts of meat again. I just hope they remain cheap and affordable and not, as is all to often the case, becoming a trendy gastro menu item pushing up demand and therefore the price: as with pork belly for instance.

I remember as a child my mother and father would prepare family dinners that would often comprise of cuts such as beef brisket: salted and turned for two weeks in the larder (yes, we had a larder a rare commodity these days) and then boiled and served with carrots. Lamb breasts: rolled and roasted with lemon and thyme stuffing, resulting in crispy lamb skin with an oozing and succulent interior or tender juicy ox tongue served with the creamiest mashed potato, wilted spinach and served with a gorgeous piquant gravy, lambs kidneys served with rice, sautéed chicken livers and other offally delights. There is something quite unique and special about these dishes, a richness and depth of flavour that to my mind far outstrips an expensive fillet steak, topside or pork leg any day. These cheaper cuts pack a big flavour, some interesting varied textures and allow some slow, considered and indulgent cooking. Sainsbury's have been selling Lamb breast for a while now and with Waitrose stepping up the game with items such as shin, skirt and cheeks it won't be too long before the others follow suit. In the meantime there are enough farmers markets, farm shops and even a renaissance for the high street butcher, here in Brighton we actually had a new one open fairly recently. You can buy excellent meat online ( although I'm a bit funny about seeing what I'm buying when it comes to meat ) Donald Russell sells beef cheeks but at a top end price of £13.75 per kilo: see what i mean about these cuts getting expensive. So get down to your local butcher or farm shop and snap up some of these sweet little cheeks before they start to leave a bitter taste in your wallet.

Beef cheeks can be used in various ways but for this recipe I cooked them as if in a daube provencale or a bourguignon style. I kept the meat in large pieces; I didn’t trim out the fat or sinew so the fat slowly melts, flavouring and tenderising the meat as it cooks. I just cut the cheeks into four or five portions and marinated the meat for 24 hours before cooking. Slow cooked for four hours in red wine and meat stock (I used venison), carrots, onions and my secret ingredient, a little star anise, the result was fantastic: mouth-watering flavour that had depth and richness, the meat was soft, tender, succulent and extremely delicious. Pop this dish in the oven, prep your vegetables (creamed parsnip and peppered steamed cabbage in this case) and head off for a brisk wintry walk or to the pub for a couple of beers. Returning home a few hours later you’ll find the house filled with warm beefy aromas and in no time an indulgent lunch will be on the table and it would have cost less than a couple of pints!

Beef cheeks daube style

Serves:4

• 800g beef cheeks 
• 3 medium onions sliced 
• 4 large carrots cut into batons 
• 1 celery stalk finely chopped 
• 1 small leek finely chopped 
• 2 rashers of bacon finely chopped 
• 2 garlic cloves 
• 3/4 bottle of red wine 
• 600ml meat stock 
• 4 tbsp flour 
• Thyme sprigs 
• 4 Bay leaves 
• 10 juniper berries, crushed 
• ½ a star anise 
• olive oil 
• salt & pepper 

Make the marinade by combining a cup of red wine, 4 tbsp of olive oil, half a sliced onion, 1 chopped carrot, some thyme leaves, a bay leaf, two garlic cloves sliced, 5 juniper berries, salt & pepper and mix well. Cut the beef cheeks into large pieces and place in a large freezer bag or a covered pot, pour over the marinade and leave in the fridge for 24 hours or at least over night.

Strain the marinade, retaining the liquid. Dry the meat on the some kitchen towel and dust with a little flour. Fry until browned in a little oil and place in a large casserole pot. In the same pan, fry the onions, leeks and celery until softened, add this to the meat. Now fry the bacon in a little oil, add the carrots, remaining juniper, star anise, thyme, bay leaves and when starting to colour douse with the remaining red wine, add the stock and reserved marinade and bring to the boil, simmer gently for five minutes and then remove the star anise, season generously. Pour this over the meat and vegetables already in the casserole and gently stir everything together. Place the lid tightly on the pot and place in a slow oven, 150 degrees and cook for four hours. Check halfway through that there is enough liquid, top up with wine or stock and more seasoning if required.

Once cooked this dish will improve with age, make it the day before and reheat gently before serving. 

Serve with creamed parsnips and a green vegetable.