Better than your Grocer's Freezer

I love Lasagna. I am going to tell you the best way to make Lasagna. It is very easy and concerns the sauce. The rest, (noodles, meat, ricotta, cheese, spinach) works just like you would think. Cook, grate, layer.

First, make your your own red sauce. This is not hard and is also very cheap, or should we say, "cost-effective."

Step One: In your food processor, grind up 3 garlic cloves, 1 celery stick, 1 carrot and 1 medium onion. If you don't have a food processor, you are going to need to cut these VERY tiny.

Step Two: Heat olive oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add your ground up veggie mixture. Let it cook and don't stir it around a lot. It needs to brown and stirring all the time does not help matters. Personally, this is hard for me as well. Go play on Facebook and forget about it for a minute or five.

Step Three: Add 2 big cans of whole tomatoes, diced tomatoes or tomato puree. Just make sure the tomatoes don't have any added spices or herbs. Now add your own fresh or dried herbs. I like a few sprigs of thyme, some chopped basil/oregano and a couple of bay leaves (off my own bay tree, I will NEVER have to buy bay leaves again.) Let this simmer for a good while and then puree with an emulsion blender or regular blender, just be careful. I make the sauce first so by the time I cook the noodles, grate the cheese, cook the beef and make the bechamel (your next task), it will be ready.

Second Part of Ultimate Sauce Making: Bechamel

Step One: Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium. Once melted, add an equal amount of flour (e.g. 2 Tablespoons butter and 2 Tablespoons flour.) Whisk to incorporate flour and cook until it smells slightly nutty. You don't want it to brown but you do want the raw flour smell to cook out.

Step Two: Add Milk. You will need 1 cup milk for every 2 Tbl butter. Add a bay leaf and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly (make sure you get in the corners of the pot, flour likes to hide there.) Cook until it has begun to thicken. Grate in some fresh nutmeg and salt/pepper to taste.

Okay, now the fun part. COMBINE equal parts red sauce and bechamel. This stuff is seriously delicious. Use this as your sauce component in your lasagna. Since I have learned about this neat trick, I make lasagna quite often.

If you serve it with a salad, it's healthy, right??