Everybody loves lasagne

Well, I love it anyway, and my other half does too. This time, I tried it with pork mince instead of beef and it worked really well, was much lighter somehow, and lovely and tasty. So here's my way....

Start with the meat mix. Finely chop a red onion and fry gently in a little oil - lid on works best as it makes the onion sweat. Add some salt too as it helps to draw the water out of the onion. While it's cooking squash in a couple of cloves of garlic, grind in some pepper, and sprinkle in some dried herbs. When all soft, add the mince - as I said I used pork, but you can use, beef or a mix of the two works really well. Stir it around and mash it up until it is well combined with the onions, garlic and herbs. Let it cook through, stirring frequently to stop meatballs forming. When all cooked through, add diced pepper and courgette - not too much as you don't want it to becomes a ratatouille - but I think a few spots of veg colour are always nice. Can omit them completely if you like. Again, mix them up together and pop the lid on, giving the veg and mince a chance to really get cooking.

After 10 minutes add chopped tomatoes, and puree. Season the tomatoes with salt, pepper and sugar and once again mix well so that it is all combined. Give the mixture a 10-20 minutes to cook - the longer it has the better, but remember it is going to get some more time in the oven.

Make a white sauce. I use the roux method, but you could use cornflour, it is completely up to you. For a roux, melt a knob of butter until it's bubbling and add a table spoon of flour. Mix it into paste and let it cook - leaving it for a little then stirring it round and leaving again. Repeat until you start to notice a slight change in colour, it should be getting lighter. Then add cold milk a little at a time - literally a splash at time, mixing well to avoid lumps, until you have a creamy mixture, and then you can add milk in larger quantities. I'm sure there are other, and probably better ways of making this, so use whichever suits.

When the sauce is ready you can build up the lasagne layers, go sparingly as I always seem to runout... Meat, white sauce, pasta, meat, white sauce pasta, white sauce, grated cheese - is the order I go for. If you can get another layer in there, great!

 It will need about 30-40 minutes in a hot oven, and you can take it out when the cheese is hot, golden and bubbling.