There are some meals that simply feel like home, and for me, the best ever lasagne is one of them.
For me, lasagne sits right at the top of that list. The smell of a rich meat sauce simmering on the stove. The creamy béchamel bubbling away. Layers of pasta, cheese and sauce coming together into something far greater than the individual ingredients could ever be on their own.
Shaz is my nickname, so when this lasagne became something of a family favourite, Lasagne à la Shaz seemed like the obvious name for it.
It isn’t a recipe that appeared out of nowhere. It started with an old family recipe that has been around for years, but like so many family recipes, it has changed a little along the way. I’ve added my own touches, adjusted things here and there and eventually ended up with the version I make today.
I suppose that’s one of the lovely things about family recipes. They don’t always stay exactly the way they were first written down. Someone leaves something out, another person adds something they think will make it better and before long the recipe has become a little bit theirs. This lasagne is very much like that for me.
The addition of back bacon is one of my more recent touches. I find that it gives the meat sauce an extra depth of flavour. If you don’t eat pork, there’s no problem at all — simply use 1 kg of ground beef mince instead.
So, while the foundations of this lasagne come from an old family recipe, Lasagne à la Shaz is the version that has become mine.
This is the lasagne I make for my family and the one that has evolved from an old family recipe into something that feels very much like my own.
The combination of rich beef mince, back bacon, tomatoes and herbs gives the meat sauce plenty of flavour, while the Parmesan béchamel adds the creamy layer that I think makes this lasagne so special.
And don’t worry if you don’t eat pork. I use back bacon for the extra flavour it brings, but you can simply replace it with additional beef mince.
If you don’t eat pork: use 1 kg ground beef mince instead of the 800 g beef mince and 200 g back bacon.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the onion and carrot for 8–10 minutes until softened, then stir in the garlic.
Add the beef mince and finely chopped back bacon and cook while breaking the mince up with a spoon until the beef mince is browned.
Pour in the passata, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, crushed stock cubes and dried herbs. Season with salt and pepper and add the optional sugar if you prefer.
Cover and cook at a gentle simmer for 20–30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened.
In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Remove the pot from the heat and add the flour, whisking for about 30 seconds or until well blended.
Return the pot to the stove, reduce the heat to low and slowly whisk in 1 cup of the milk until well combined.
Once smooth, add the remaining milk in 1-cup increments, mixing well after each addition until all the milk has been incorporated and the sauce is free from lumps.
If the sauce is too thick, add a little more milk until it reaches a lovely creamy consistency.
Add the Parmesan cheese and remove the sauce from the heat. Season with salt and pepper and stir until the cheese has melted through.
Preheat your oven to 180°C fan forced or 190°C conventional.
Spoon about 1 cup of meat sauce onto the base of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. This helps prevent the lasagne from sticking and gives you that lovely flavour from the bottom upwards.
Cover the meat sauce with lasagne sheets, trimming them if necessary to fit the dish.
Add about 2 cups of meat sauce, or enough to cover the pasta, followed by half of the mozzarella.
Repeat the layers, leaving the remaining mozzarella for the top.
Finish with the remaining meat sauce and white sauce over the final layer of lasagne sheets, then cover with the remaining mozzarella.
Cover the dish with aluminium foil and bake for 40 minutes.
Remove the foil and return the lasagne to the oven for another 10–12 minutes, or until beautifully golden on top.
Remove from the oven and garnish with the fresh parsley.
And now comes the difficult part — let it stand for about 10 minutes before slicing.
Then serve and enjoy.
Lasagne is quite happy to be the star of the table, but I do like serving it with a few simple things on the side. You don’t need to prepare an enormous spread — a crisp salad and something lovely for mopping up the sauce are usually more than enough. If I’m feeding a crowd, I might add a couple of vegetables too.
A simple side dish helps balance the richness of the lasagne without competing with its flavour.
Lasagne is one of my favourite meals to prepare in advance. I actually prefer assembling the whole dish a day before because it gives the flavours a chance to meld together in the fridge overnight.
Assemble the lasagne completely, cover it tightly with foil and store it in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking.
When you’re ready for dinner, bake it straight from the fridge and add about 15 extra minutes to the cooking time so that the cold centre heats all the way through.
Keep baked leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
This freezes beautifully for up to 3 months.
I recommend allowing it to cool completely, slicing it into individual portions and wrapping each portion before placing them in a freezer bag. It makes pulling out a quick lunch or single dinner so much easier.
Let frozen portions thaw in the fridge overnight.
Individual pieces can be warmed in the microwave, or placed in an oven-safe dish, covered with foil and reheated at 180°C until heated through.
Keeping the lasagne covered while reheating helps prevent the pasta from drying out.
I think the secret to a really good lasagne is not one particular ingredient. It is the way all the layers work together. You want a meat sauce that has plenty of flavour without being watery, a creamy white sauce that brings richness without overwhelming everything else and enough cheese to give you those lovely golden, bubbling edges that everyone seems to want.
With Lasagne à la Shaz, the back bacon is one of the little changes I’ve made to the old family recipe. I add it to the beef mince because it gives the meat sauce an extra depth of flavour. It isn’t meant to make the lasagne taste like bacon. Instead, it adds something in the background that makes the finished sauce that much more savoury and satisfying.
I also like using both passata and crushed tomatoes in the meat sauce. The passata gives the sauce a lovely smooth tomato base, while the crushed tomatoes add a little more texture. Along with the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and stock, they create a sauce that can happily simmer away while the flavours come together.
Then there is the Parmesan béchamel. This is one of the things I wouldn’t leave out. A plain white sauce would certainly work, but adding freshly grated Parmesan gives it another layer of flavour and makes it wonderfully creamy and savoury. When it meets the tomato-rich meat sauce, lasagne sheets and mozzarella, everything comes together in a way that makes each mouthful a little different.
And perhaps that’s why I keep coming back to this particular combination. It isn’t complicated cooking and there aren’t dozens of unusual ingredients involved. It is simply good, familiar food made with a little care.
That’s what I love about family recipes. Sometimes the best ones aren’t the recipes that remain exactly as they were written. They are the ones that get passed from one kitchen to another, with each person making a few little changes until eventually you have something that feels like it belongs to you.
There are a few little things I’ve learnt from making lasagne over the years that can make a noticeable difference to the finished dish. None of them are complicated and you certainly don’t need to be a particularly experienced cook. They are simply the little things that help turn a good lasagne into one that people remember.
Don’t rush the meat sauce. Even though this recipe only calls for 20–30 minutes of simmering, give it your attention while it cooks and make sure the sauce has thickened nicely before you start assembling the lasagne. A sauce that is too thin can leave you with a watery lasagne.
Give the white sauce a little care. Adding the milk gradually and whisking well helps you achieve that smooth, creamy consistency we’re looking for. If it becomes too thick, don’t panic. A little extra milk will loosen it again.
Don’t be tempted to cut the lasagne straight from the oven. I know how difficult this is when the kitchen smells wonderful and everyone is waiting at the table, but those ten minutes of resting really do help. The layers have a chance to settle and you’re much more likely to get a lovely slice rather than a delicious but rather messy pile on the plate.
Use good cheese. Freshly grated Parmesan in the béchamel and fresh mozzarella on top are two of the things I particularly enjoy about this recipe. The mozzarella gives you that golden, bubbling topping while the Parmesan adds another layer of flavour to the white sauce.
And don’t worry about making it look perfect. Lasagne is one of those wonderfully forgiving dishes. If a sheet needs trimming to fit the dish or one layer isn’t quite as neat as another, nobody is going to notice once it comes out of the oven. What matters is the flavour and the people sitting around the table enjoying it.
Absolutely. I use back bacon because I love the extra depth of flavour it gives the meat sauce, but if you don’t eat pork you can simply use 1 kg of ground beef mince instead.
Baked leftover lasagne can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. It can also be frozen for up to 3 months. See the make-ahead, storage and reheating section above for more details.
It satisfies hungry families, feeds guests with ease and freezes beautifully for another day. I also love that it feels special enough for a family gathering without being complicated or fussy to prepare.
Most importantly, it creates memories. Some of my favourite moments have happened around a table with a generous slice of lasagne on my plate and people I love sitting nearby.
That is why Lasagne à la Shaz will always be more than a recipe. It is comfort, connection and home all layered together in one delicious dish.
I think some recipes become part of us without us even realising it. We make them for birthdays, Sunday lunches, family gatherings and ordinary evenings when everyone is hungry and nobody really wants anything complicated.
Lasagne is one of those recipes for me. It started with an old family recipe and slowly became something I changed, adapted and made my own. Somewhere along the way, it became Lasagne à la Shaz.
I love that it can feed a table full of people and still leave a few portions tucked away for another day. I love the smell of the meat sauce simmering on the stove and the moment when the cheese on top turns golden in the oven. But most of all, I love what happens when the dish reaches the table and everyone settles down to eat.
That’s the part you can’t put into a recipe card.
Food has a wonderful way of bringing people together, and perhaps that’s why old family recipes are worth holding onto. They carry little pieces of the people and places they came from, while still leaving room for us to add something of our own.
If you’re in the mood for a little more comforting food and simple pleasures from the kitchen, you might enjoy some of my other Rustic Daisy articles too. I love how one recipe or food memory can often lead to another, so have a little browse and see where you end up.
The Best Comfort Food Ideas For Winter – Warm, Hearty Meals That Feed The Soul
The Unexpected Joy Of Growing Herbs At Home
There aren’t many special gadgets you need to make a good lasagne. A decent baking dish, something for grating the Parmesan and a good lasagne server will take you a long way. I’ve gathered a few things below that I think are useful if you’re making lasagne regularly or simply enjoy having the right tools in the kitchen.
You certainly don’t need to buy any of them. If you already have something that does the job, keep using it. These are simply a few ideas if you’re looking for something practical to add to your kitchen.
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9 x 13-inch baking dish – A beautiful dish to bake and serve your lasagne in.
Rotary grater – Parmesan cheese can be difficult to grate so this works really well.
A lasagne server – I love this server to serve your lasagne
A large saucepan for the meat sauce
If you make Lasagne à la Shaz in your own kitchen, I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I do. And if you make a little change along the way and eventually give it your own name, well, that’s exactly how family recipes continue to live on.
With love,
