How to make the perfect lasagne

Step 1. Lasagne needs a lot of ingredients, check that you've got everything.

Shopping list:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 x 400g (14oz) tins chopped tomatoes
2tbsp tomato purée
300ml (1/2 pint) hot beef stock
500g (1lb 2oz) lean beef mince
60g (2 1/4oz) low-fat spread
60g (2 1/4oz) plain flour
700ml (1 1/4 pint) semi-skimmed milk
1/2tsp grated nutmeg
250g (9oz) fresh lasagne sheets (you can find these in most supermarkets, in the chiller cabinets)

Step 2.
Chop the onion, celery and carrot finely and crush the garlic - if you don't have a garlic crusher, put the cloves in a clear plastic bag and mash them up with a meat tenderiser. Put all vegetables in a pan, stir and season well.

Step 6.
Turn off the heat, stir the sauce a final time and beat out any lumps with a whisk. Add the nutmeg, stir and set aside - don't worry if the sauce gets a skin - you can get rid of that by stirring with a hand-held whisk just before you pour the sauce onto the dish.

Step 7.
Dry-fry the mince until it's brown. Minced beef is best for this recipe and use lean mince to keep this dish low-fat.

Step 8.
Add the fried mince to the tomato and vegetable mixture, season to taste and stir.

Step 9.
In an ovenproof dish spoon in the mince mixture. Cover the bottom of the dish with a layer of the sauce about an inch thick.

Step 10.
Place the pasta sheets on top of the mince sauce, ensure the edges of the pasta sheets overlap a bit to hold the dish together. Spoon more mince sauce over the pasta sheets, again about an inch or so thick. Then layer more pasta sheets on top of the sauce as before. Repeat this so that you have two or three layers of pasta - the dish should finish with pasta, not with mince.

Step 11.
Spoon the sauce on top of the top layer of pasta and leave about half an inch from the top of the ovenproof dish. If it starts to brown too quicly cover with foil and continue cooking.

Step 12.
Put the dish into a pre-heated oven at 180ºC/350F/gas 4 for 20-30 mins. If you notice the lasagne is going brown on top before it's ready cover with foil and continue cooking.

Because lasagne is so filling you don't need much to go with it, just some salad and bread to soak up the sauces. And if you've got any left over mince sauce or white sauce you can freeze it.

Enjoy!

Find out the calorie content of this lasagne
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