Lasagne Bolognese
Being forced to eradicate wheat from my diet has created the challenge to find a brand of gluten free pasta that satisfies my discerning palate. I expect gluten free pasta to be like, well,….pasta. Is that too much to ask?
Most brands are gluey, stick together in the pan and readily disintegrate. The mouth feel is stodgy and they have no flavour. I won’t name brand names, but the people who work in the product development labs within these manufacturers seriously need to taste real pasta, high quality pasta so they know what they are trying to emulate.
The wonderful people at “Farabella” in the Abruzzo region of Italy have succeeded in making a fair dinkum pasta that is gluten free using corn flour, rice flour and corn starch. Available in more than 22 short shapes, they also make spaghetti, lasagne sheets and canneloni tubes. It cooks perfectly to al dente without clumping or disintegrating, and the best part is it tastes like pasta!
I’d be hard pressed to pick this as a gluten free product in a blind tasting.
for the lasagne
Bolognese sauce, half this recipe
Bechamel sauce, recipe below
100g parmigiana reggiano
8 lasagne sheets (this may vary according to the size of your dish)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Prepare the Bolognese sauce, this can be done the day before.
Prepare the bechamel sauce, then lay plastic wrap over the surface to prevent a skin from forming.
Cook the lasagne sheets in plenty of boiling salted water for the time specified by the manufacturer. Drain the pasta, then keep it in a bowl of iced water until ready to use.
Oil an shallow oblong ovenproof dish , or as I did, 2 small dishes.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Spoon a small amount of bolognese sauce into the ovenproof dish and spread it thinly over the surface. This will prevent the bottom pasta sheet from sticking. Now layer the meat sauce and pasta sheets into the dish until it is full or you have run out of ingredients. Finish with a layer of bolognese sauce. Top the lasagne with a thick layer of cheesy bechamel, then scatter the surface with dried oregano.
Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until well browned on the top.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving with a crisp green salad and a glass of red wine.
bechamel sauce
60g butter
1/2 cup plain flour
600mls hot milk
Salt pepper and nutmeg
Melt the butter over a low heat, then add the flour and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Gradually add the hot milk whisking vigorously with a wire whisk to prevent lumps from forming. Continue to whisk until the mixture thickens and comes to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the cheese then season to taste with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. The sauce is now ready to use.
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23 comments on “Lasagne Bolognese”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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Nice 🙂 I can’t imagine life without pasta, so I’m glad you found a brand you can eat!
Did you know you can actually add all of the hot milk at once to the roux to make bechamel without getting lumps? You just need to whisk energetically.
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Yes it’s good to be able to enjoy pasta again, thanks for the tip with the bechamel making.
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Lasagne is about the only thing I can get the whole family to sit down and eat – (although we use Quorn mince to accomodate the vegetarian – and it tastes just as good !)
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I have a really tasty all vegetable lasagne in my archive, check it out. We love lasagne too!
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Your lasagne looks just perfect! I’ll have to look for Farabella, don’t think I’ve ever seen it. Thanks Sandra!
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Thanks, Farabella is worth looking for!
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Ummm, comfort food in the best way. Yum!
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Looks very delectable. 😛
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Thanks Fae
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Love that you found a good GF pasta and created this fantastic lasagna. I need to find Farabella products here. I’ve relatives who are going to love this. Thanks.
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Thanks John. Farabella GF pasta is well worth hunting out. There may be other decent brands but I’ve never found one!
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Looks so good! Farrabella…will have to do a little search to find some in my area. I would like to use a good gluten free pasta for lasagne. Thanks for the information.
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Happy to give truly outstanding products a little free promotion, spread the word. Farabella have a website, I’d shoot them an email and ask who imports their product into the USA, then go to then and see who they sell to in your area. Good Luck
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Thanks for the tip on gluten free pasta. I can eat gluten and do eat gluten but I have many friends who do not. I have tried several brands of gluten free pasta and they were terrible. I need to give this a try.
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Do, GF Farabella is a revealation in a sea of disgusting GF pasta
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This looks amazing! Thanks so much for the info and for sharing!
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It’s a pleasure. It’s rare for mr to feel I want to promote a commercial product, but GF Farabella pasta is simply outstanding.
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Great post!
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Thank you!
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I love this
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Thanks
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