A twist on a beef lasagne that is simple but tasty and a good meal to prepare in advance or even make a few of to freeze.

You can do this with or without the vegetables, I added them to try and get a bit of goodness in and also to use up some veg that was on the turn! its up to you although I do think the aubergine really compliments the dish and the carrot adds sweetness.

Ingredients

around 12 sheets of Lasagne – fresh if possible
250g Mozarella Cheese
50g fresh Parmesan – I actually had none in so used cheddar! sssshhh
8 Pork sausages – Ones with garlic and herbs are best.
2 cloves of garlic sliced
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 teaspoon of chilli flakes (optional)
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp Tomato puree
1/4 pint of red wine
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Oregano or 1 tsp dried
1 medium onion diced
2 carrots diced
1/2 Aubergine diced
Splash of balsamic vinegar
5 sliced sundried tomatoes (optional)
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a pan and squeeze nuggets of sausage out of their skins into the oil like little meatballs, it doesn’t matter what size and shape they are but quite large lumps. Fry until browned all round then add the garlic fennel and chilli flakes and cook for another minute.

Put this mixture aside and then cook the onions carrots and aubergine for around 5 – 7 minutes on a medium heat until soft. Add the sausage pieces back in the pan.

Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, herbs ( if using dried), wine, sund dried tomatoes if using and balsamic and then bring to the boil and simmer for around 15 – 20 minutes. If using fresh herbs add these after simmering. Season well with salt and pepper.

Heat the oven to 190 fan and start to assemble your lasagne.

I did not make a traditional white sauce for this lasagne as I thought it would take away from the sausage and fennel taste.

add a layer of lasagne sheets in a large rectangular oven proof dish then 1/3 of the sauce then 1/4 of the mozzarella and repeat twice. Make sure you keep some tomato sauce for the top of the last lasagne sheets then add the rest of the mozzarella and a handful of the Parmesan.

Cover with foil and bake in the oven for around 30 minutes and take the foil off for another 10 minutes.

Serve with Garlic bread and a side salad.

(This amount made 2 portions of the size you see above in the photo)

Off to get mine out of the oven now…