When you have many guests to feed during family gatherings, I find lasagne always comes in handy. Although there is some prep work with pre-making the meat sauce, using oven ready gluten free noodles saves time and fuss and I find the results outstanding. This recipe is easy to make and always delicious. If you make the meat sauce the night before and let if rest overnight, I find the flavours are even better to assemble the next day. If you have left over sauce, you can always freeze it and use for a spaghetti sauce another time. Remember to put a layer of sauce down first, then the oven ready brown rice noodles followed by meat sauce, gluten free bechemal and prewashed spinach. Keep going until you run out of noodles. Make sure the noodles are completely covered in sauce or they will burn. I like to finish with a top layer of meat sauce, bechemal and a layer of mozzarella. Cover loosely with foil and place in center rack of preheated oven. If you have a big lasagne pan like I do, it takes a good hour for the noodles to cook through. Near the end, you can remove the foil and leave in another 15 or 20 minutes so the top is nicely browned. This tastes even better the next day to reheat.
- 1 lb beef
- 1 lb pork
- 2 small diced onions
- 6-10 cloves of garlic depending on your taste
- 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 TBLS dried basil
- 1 TBLS thyme
- 2 sticks diced celery
- 2 large diced carrots
- 2 bay leaves
- Bechemel:
- 2 cups milk
- 2 TBLS brown rice flour
- ½ cup grated cheddar
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- Prewashed dryed spinach
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- Add diced onions and garlic to a hot dutch oven or large pot with a little olive oil
- Add in diced carrots and celery and brown
- Add pork and beef and cook until browned
- Add basil, thyme,bay leaves and salt and pepper
- Add 1 28 fl oz san marzano tomatoes(if you can find them)
- Add 1 28 fl oz crushed tomotoes
- Simmer sauce for at least an hour until flavours blend.
- Season to taste and set on low
- Prepare bechemal as listed heating 2 cups of milk adding 2 TBLS brown rice flour
- Whisk until thickened
- Add salt, pepper and nutmeg or other seasonings to taste along with ¼ cup grated cheese until melted
- Set aside bechemal to cool
- Use a large lasagne pan that serves 6
- To prevent sticking to bottom of the pan, add a layer of sauce to the bottom of dish and then a layer of oven ready brown rice noodles
- Add another layer of sauce followed by a third of cream sauce poured evenly over
- Add a layer of spinach and repeat noodles, meat, sauce and spinach
- Depending on how deep your dish, you might just have room for another layer of noodles, then meat and sauce followed by the top layer of grated cheese
- Cover with foil and bake in middle rack at 400 degrees for 60 minutes.
- Remove foil about 25 min before ending so the top is browned nicely
- Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes until serving.