One pan, no fuss. Broken lasagna sheets cooked straight in a rich beef bolognese, finished with creamy ricotta and basil. A weeknight dinner the whole family will love.
Category
Dinner
Servings
4-5
Prep time
10 minutes
Cook time
35 minutes
This is a riff on a lasagne. I’m taking a few of the key elements but changing a few as well. Instead of bechamel, I’m using smooth ricotta, which cuts out an entire component you’d normally have to make, and I think it actually keeps the whole thing nice and light.
My mate Ben Shewry would absolutely not call this a lasagne, but I don’t care because it tastes great.
I first saw this style on Binging with Babish’s channel and thought it was a brilliant idea. If you’re after a lighter, easier version of lasagne, this is your one. It looks great served straight from the pan, which also means less washing up.
Ingredient Notes
Beef mince: Use mince with around 20% fat content. Leaner mince won’t brown as well and the sauce will lack depth. You could also use half beef and half pork which will give you a lighter, more traditional bolognese flavour. The pork adds a natural sweetness that works really well in this dish.
Chopped tomatoes: You want chopped, not whole peeled. You need a wet, loose sauce to cook the pasta in and chopped tomatoes give you the right consistency. Use every last bit from the can. A splash of water swirled around in the empty can picks up whatever’s left on the sides.
Passata: Passata is smooth, strained tomatoes, not a flavoured pasta sauce. It adds body and a silky texture to the bolognese. Make sure you’re buying plain passata, not a jar of pasta sauce.
Dried lasagne sheets: Use dried, not fresh for this recipe. Fresh lasagne sheets will overcook and turn to mush. The dried sheets absorb the sauce as they cook, which is exactly what you want. Break them into rough rectangles so they stand upright in the pan.
Parmesan: Grate it yourself rather than buying pre-grated. It melts into the sauce much more cleanly and tastes noticeably better.
Smooth ricotta: Make sure you buy smooth ricotta, not the grainy variety. You want it to dollop cleanly over the top and melt slightly from the heat of the dish. It’s used in place of bechamel here for a lighter, no-cook alternative.
Equipment you'll need
- Large heavy-based frying pan with a lid (at least 30cm)
- Wooden spoon
- Sharp knife and chopping board
- Box grater or microplane
Andy
Ingredients
-
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
-
500g beef mince
-
sea salt and cracked black pepper, to season
-
1 brown onion
-
4 cloves garlic
-
2 x 400g cans chopped tomato
-
10g dried oregano
-
10 basil leaves, plus extra to serve
-
400g jar tomato passata
-
250g dried lasagna sheets
-
100g grated parmesan
-
250g smooth ricotta
Directions
Cook the beef
- Heat the oil in a large heavy based frying pan with a lid, over medium-high heat. Break the beef up into small pieces and add to the pan, season with salt and leave to cook for 8-10 minutes, without stirring.
- Once it starts to brown, start moving it around a little bit with the wooden spoon and breaking it up even further. Continue cooking until browned all over.
- Once it’s nice and brown, remove some of the excess fat in the pan. To do this, just push your beef to one side of the pan, tip the pan slightly so the fat piles in one part and spoon it out into a small bowl (you can use the excess later if you need more moisture or put it in the fridge and use next time you’re cooking a steak). Just leave about 1 tablespoon in the pan.
Cook the base
- Dice the brown onion and garlic cloves. Add the onions to the pan, season with some salt and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the onions soften.
- Stir in the garlic, continue cooking for 2 minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes, then fill the cans ¼ full with water and add to the pan to get the rest of the tomatoes out.
- Add the oregano, basil leaves, passata and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer.
Add the pasta and finish
- Break the pasta sheets into smaller pieces (try to keep them as rectangles), roughly 4 per sheet, and stick into the sauce, standing upright.
- Cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring gently at the halfway mark (around 7 minutes). Uncover and check if pasta is softened, then sprinkle over the parmesan cheese and fold through. At this point, if you think the sauce is too thick, just add a little bit of water and stir through.
- Dollop the ricotta over the pasta in small spoonfuls. Garnish with basil leaves and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve it from the pot and enjoy!
Recipe notes
Chef Tips
Don’t rush browning the beef
Let the mince sit in the pan without stirring for a good 8 to 10 minutes. Most people break it up too early and end up with grey, steamed meat instead of a properly browned bolognese. That crust is where the flavour comes from. Once it’s golden on the bottom, then you can start breaking it apart.
Keep the fat
After the beef is cooked, there will be plenty of fat in the pan. You want to remove most of this (only keeping about 1 tbsp) by spooning out the excess into a small bowl. This is beef tallow, so keep this in the fridge and use it to cook your steak in next time.
Keep the sauce loose
The dried pasta will absorb a lot of liquid as it cooks, so don’t let the sauce get too thick before adding the sheets. Keep a cup of water nearby. If it looks dry at any point, add a splash and stir through.
Leftovers reheat well
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The pasta will absorb more sauce as it sits, so just add a splash of water when you reheat it to loosen everything back up.
FAQs
Can I make this ahead of time? Kind of. The bolognese sauce can be made well ahead and kept in the fridge for up to 3 days. When you’re ready to serve, bring it back to a simmer, add the pasta sheets and finish from there. Don’t add the pasta and then try to reheat it as the sheets will absorb all the liquid and turn soft.
Can I make it gluten free? Gluten free dried lasagne sheets do exist, though they can be harder to find than regular ones. Check the pasta aisle of a larger supermarket or a health food store. Everything else in the dish is naturally gluten free.
Can I use fresh lasagne sheets? I wouldn’t recommend it. Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried and doesn’t absorb liquid in the same way. It will likely turn to mush before the sauce has time to reduce properly. Dried sheets are the right choice here.
Can I freeze it? The bolognese sauce freezes really well on its own. Let it cool completely, then store it in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. I wouldn’t freeze the fully assembled dish once the pasta is cooked, as the texture suffers when thawed.
What should I serve it with? This is a pretty hearty dish on its own, so I’d keep the sides simple. A green salad with a sharp dressing cuts through the richness nicely, as does some steamed broccolini or green beans. A bit of crusty bread on the side to mop up the sauce is never a bad idea.
Can I use a different mince? Yes. Lamb mince works brilliantly here and gives the bolognese a deeper, more robust flavour. Pork, chicken, or turkey mince all work too, though they’re milder. If you go with chicken or turkey, make sure you season generously.
