Which title rhymes satisfactorily.
Made lasagne al forno yesterday, and modesty forbids my saying it was excellent.
The only less-than-perfect aspect was the irregularity of the pasta sheets. (If you’re contemplating a pasta machine, don’t hesitate. It’s extremely satisfying to roll out, increasingly finely, sheets of pasta.) Is there a technique to achieve some sort of rectangularity, or must I use scissors? I don’t mind a bit of overlap, but mine were all a variation of oval.
I think many people would find the irregularity more interesting. though personally my least favourite pasta is lasagne, so my opinion is worthless 
Yes, but you’ve not tasted mine 
OK - what’s the secret?
I hope not bits of pussy cats eg
The method is one very long sheet you cut down to individual sheets - not lots of small bits. It takes practice
Mrs P would kill me.
Redcurrant jelly in the ragu!
Weirdly, it was Mary Berry’s 1970s recipe for lasagna al forno on the BBC website. I substituted passata for chopped tomatoes, and fried the mince in duck fat, but the rest was the same.
Can’t go wrong with duck fat!
Every time I make confit de canard, I generate another 500gms of duck fat and and virtually everyone I know has now been a recipient of this surplus.
Re the Mary Berry recipe, you could probably omit the ‘2 level tbsp [plain flour]’ and instead let it reduce a little more. Also chopped chicken livers add a further dimension to a ragu.
I’m still using the jar I retained from the last tin. I’d like to make my own, perhaps one day.
Confit de canard from a butcher is usually better than the tinned ones, but I’m in the SW where every butcher has it (tho’ I do prefer my own - less dried out).
Honesty compels me to admit I used that amount of Waitrose 
beef gravy granules.
I was going to add some chicken livers (I still remember a dish of sautéed chicken livers somewhere in Harrogate, and M&S chicken liver pâté is one of my formative culinary memories) but couldn’t find any. I will try it next time.
I have no need to worry about gravy granules, which is handy as there is no Waitrose here, because I always have a rolling sauce on the go. Whatever I make in that way there is always a little bit left over to be added to the next day, even with different types of soup as a base.
I used to buy tomato or chicken soup and add about 7 or 8 different spices etc. but then I picked up a Maggi by mistake. It is not a soup but comes with a little bag attached in which you are supposed to put your chicken followed by the dried contents of the packet and then into the oven for roasting.
I don’t do whole chickens, so I throw the little bag away and boil up the other contents into a sauce so spicy and delicous that I don’t need to add any of my own. 
For me, Lasagne is a lot of fuss and bother so I buy the fresh one from Lidl, it keeps for a good week in fridge and cut bits off to reheat. Its pretty good for the price, around €4 and serves 2/3 depending on appetites and there is a good amount of sauce and meat sauce in it with cheese on the top.
A supermarket lasagne is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. It’s not supposed to be good but I love it.
And why not? Iceland’s lasagne with pancetta is very good.
I enjoy making things like that (I’m hopeless at DIY or cars) so there’s an element of entertainment as well as having something a bit ostentatious at the end of it.
This week for my youngest Godson (who is very fond of lemon curd - I don’t know if that’s unusual in an 8yo) it will be tarte au citron with home-made pastry (and ensuring I remember to put paper beneath the baking beans to avoid having to excavate them like last time).
If you are happy to eat sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate with beef that may not be the highest quality, in a medium salt and sugar meal.
Beef (32%), Water, Chopped Tomatoes, Cooked Free Range Egg Pasta (Durum Wheat Semolina, Water, Pasteurised Liquid Whole Free Range Egg), Tomato Paste, Dried Skimmed Milk, Modified Maize Starch, Mature Cheddar Cheese (Milk), Onion, Smoked Diced Pancetta (2%) (Pork Belly, Water, Salt, Glucose Syrup, Maltodextrin, Onion Extract, Antioxidants: Sodium Ascorbate, Sodium Citrates; Preservatives: Sodium Nitrite, Potassium Nitrate), Red Leicester Cheese (1.5%) (Cheese (Milk), Colour: Annatto Norbixin), Mozzarella Cheese (Milk), Red Wine, Beef Stock (Concentrated Juices Of Beef (Beef, Beef Extract, Water, Beef Fat), Cornflour, Sugar, Salt, Tomato Purée, Concentrated Onion), Salt, Brown Sugar, Rapeseed Oil, Garlic, Ground Fennel, Oregano, Basil, Cracked Black Pepper.
Rats - I forgot the maltodextrin in my lasagne. I knew there was something missing.
Delicious. 
Ah but thats behind the glucose so even more sweetner. Just for good measure they chuck a bit of sugar in later on, oh and why is diabetes, heart disease and dementia on the rise?
I was surprised at Mary Berry’s inclusion of redcurrant jelly or to sub sugar for it. I know ready meals have lots of sugar etc. but I wouldn’t have expected it in a “real” recipe.
I know what you mean, its hard now I have pretty much eliminated sugar from my intake to purchase anything that isnt tasting crazy sweet these days. Its not surprising with sugars in almost everything that we need more to get that hit. When you cut it out however everything tastes sweet on its own. I have porridge with nowt else but milk and the sweetness of the milk is enough.