Lasagna Bolognaise

Lasagna ... always a dish that would delight everybody ... I thought I could share my recipe with you. You can even do vegetarian lasagna (but that would be for next time).

The following ingredients are for 6 single servings, so feel free to adjust the quantities if you are cooking for more or less people.

You will need:

• 300 grams of tomato puree
• Some water
• 2 tablespoons of basil (one for the tomato sauce and one for the beef)
• 1 tablespoons of rosemary
• 2 eggs
• About 500 grams of lean ground beef
• 50 grams of breadcrumbs
• 80 grams of parmesan cheese
• Olive oil
• 250 grams of mozzarella
• 3-4 sheets of lasagna

Preparation time: 25-30 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Start by pre-heating your oven at 200 C (390 F).

In a sauce pan, prepare your tomato sauce by adding the tomato puree and the same amount of water to a pot, along with one tablespoon of the basil and one tablespoon of rosemary.

Let the sauce heat up and stir it once in a while.

Meanwile, in a bowl, slightly beat the eggs.

In a bowl, add the ground beef, the beaten eggs, the breadcrumbs, half of the parmesan cheese, and the rest of the basil.

Mix with your hands until the beef becomes evenly coated.

Heat up some olive oil in a pan and place the beef mix to cook.

Cook the beef until he reaches this color.

Pour a little bit of tomato sauce into your lasagna dish to make a thin layer on the bottom.

Add the rest of the tomato sauce to the beef and let them mix together to make a bolognaise sauce.

Let it sit on warm heat for about 3 minutes.

Slice the mozzarella ball.

It is now time to set up your lasagna.

Add a lasagna sheet on the tomato sauce (double-check on your packet if you are supposed to cook the lasagna sheets or not).

Add a layer of the bolognaise sauce.

Add few slices of mozzarella.

Grate some parmesan cheese on top.

Repeat these 4 last actions twice, layering the lasagna, bolognaise sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan, and finish with beef, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese.

Place in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Tips:

 - Feel free to adjust the quantities of basil and rosemary according to your taste.

 - In case you don't use the bolognaise entirely, you can keep it in a sealed container in the fridge for few days, and use the leftovers to make a pizza or add the leftovers with spaghetti.

 - If you don't want to make the sauce, you can also just use a jar of pre-made bolognaise sauce.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Charline Leblond

Roasted Chicken with Rosemary & Potatoes

A really simple, classic recipe; chicken and potatoes, what else do you need?

Well, rosemary would be nice. Some salt and pepper as well. And why not get some cherry tomatoes for some lovely colour and texture contrast?

Use whatever chicken you like, in this example I am using breasts, but feel free to use thighs or legs.

You can preheat your oven to roughly 180 degrees celsius (355 fahrenheit). My oven generally underwhelms me, so I tend to turn it up a bit hotter than needed, if you know your oven's idiosyncrasies, then feel free to adjust to match.

Let's start with the potatoes, I use one potato per person if they are medium to large potatoes, by which I mean one potato is larger than my fist. Chop the potato into smallish bits, aim for the size of a standard board-game dice, its okay if some bits end up a bit larger too.

Before you start chopping; we are going to be boiling these potatoes just to cook them a little bit (this is called "Parboiling"), so set up a saucepan of water and let it come to a boil while you chop your potatoes.

Drop the potato pieces into the boiling water, and a pinch or two of salt and we will let them boil for just 5 or so minutes.

Meanwhile, if you have dried rosemary that comes in one of those spice-bottles, then you can skip this next bit. If you went and got some real rosemary, then break the leaves off two of the stalks and finely chop them up. 

We can start now with seasoning the chicken, if you like. I just rub a bit of salt and pepper on the chicken, but feel free to experiment with other dry seasonings as well.

Its probably time to get those potatoes out now, strain them and let them sit for a while so they get to really dry out.

Next, heat up a pan or a skillet to a medium-high heat, add just a bit of oil, and sear the chicken pieces. What I mean is that we are not going to let the chicken cook completely, we just want to sear the outside.  It shouldn't take more than one minute on each side if the pan is nice and hot, the outside will be slightly browned, and that is good enough.

Now, we just get everything together in a baking pan ... simply place the chicken on the sheet, surround it with the potatoes, and generously sprinkle all that rosemary you chopped up. Why not add two full stalks of rosemary for some fun?

Now put the pan in the oven at roughly 180 degrees celsius (355 fahrenheit) for about 20 minutes. In case you haven't noticed, I have not done anything with the tomatoes. Let the chicken and potatoes roast for a bit, say roughly 10 minutes, then carefully take the baking tray out just a bit and add the cherry tomatoes, please be careful not to burn yourself. If you feel more comfortable taking the entire pan out and placing on the counter while you add the tomatoes, thats fine. You won't hurt the chicken's feelings.

Finally, put the pan back in for another ten minutes or so. Generally, you will start noticing a nice aroma in your kitchen when the dish is ready. Carefully take it out and just make sure the chicken is cooked.

Hopefully, your potatoes are a little more roasted than mine, so if they are more brown at this point, thats great! Now just plate and serve.

As you can see, this is an incredibly easy recipe. The chicken should be nice and juicy inside and slightly crisp outside, as should the potatoes. The tomatoes will be completely melt-in-your-mouth gooey in contrast, and the dish on the whole will have the aroma of rosemary yet without being overpowering on the spice.

Oh, and the stalk is just decoration, don't eat it.

Well, eat it if you want, I suppose, just don't tell anyone that I told you to eat it.

This dish pairs well with a chardonnay, a red table cloth, and another person.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki