Holiday Special
Candied Bacon & Blue Cheese Lasagna
I am in love with the Christmas season. It is my favourite time of the year. I know a lot of people say that the season is about gift-giving, spending time with your families and friends, and being thankful for all of your blessings, but I personally think this is false. Christmas is really all about the good food and all the good emotions that come with it. Joy is in the atmosphere and it is just as aromatic and heartwarming as the smell of melted butter.
My family and friends are big on parties that involve heaping amounts of food and drinks. People tend to bring food that is marked for being popularly liked and enjoyed--food that gives you a lot of happy emotions as well as an undeniable wave (or tsunami) of sensory satisfaction.
My recipe is all about that. But Christmas or no Christmas, I'd say cooking something as lush and savoury as this is a great way to show your friends you love them.
Give it a try and tell me what you think!
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Serving Size: 8-10 people
Time: 2 1/2 hours
Ingredients
Candied Bacon & Blue Cheese Lasagna
- Butter
- No-boil lasagna noodles (500g)
- Candied bacon (600g)
- Bolognese sauce - recipe to follow
- Cheese sauce - recipe to follow
- Mozzarella (400g shredded)
- Parmesan (250g grated or packaged)
- Blue cheese (150-200g)
Bolognese sauce
- Olive oil
- Onion (1 1/2 large white onion, diced)
- Garlic (1 whole garlic, finely chopped)
- Ground beef (1/2 kilo)
- Ground pork (1/2 kilo)
- Thyme - to taste
- Allspice - to taste
- Tarragon - to taste
- Red pepper flakes (1 tbsp or more)
- Parsley - to taste
- Red wine (1 cup)
- Bayleaf (4 leaves)
- Peeled tomatoes (2 large cans or about 1,600 g)
- Salt - to taste
- Pepper - to taste
- Cream cheese (8oz) (medium-sized cubes)
Cheese sauce
- Butter (1/2 cup)
- Full cream milk (3 cups)
- Processed cheese (150g) - I use Quickmelt for obvious reasons
- Nutmeg - to taste
- Pepper - to taste
Equipment
Lasagna dish/baking dish
Dutch oven
Sauce pan
Oven
Procedure for
Bolognese sauce
In a Dutch oven, drizzle some olive oil on medium heat.
Add in the onions.
Wait for a 5-8 minutes before adding the garlic.
Add in the beef
and pork.
As the meat cooks, sprinkle in the herbs.
Season this with salt and pepper.
Season this with salt and pepper.
Once the parsley is
in and the meat looks about medium rare, add in the wine and bay leafs.
Pour in the tomatoes.
Crush the tomatoes as you mix it with the meat. This will create a tomato sauce.
Make sure that the meat is drowning in tomato sauce.
Season the mixture with salt
and pepper while stirring.
You can fish out the bay leaves as you wait for the tomato to cook.
You can fish out the bay leaves as you wait for the tomato to cook.
After 15-20 minutes, add in the cream cheese.
Let the sauce simmer and make sure that the tomato is cooked through and that the sauce is thick enough before cooling.
Add more salt and pepper to taste.
Let the sauce simmer and make sure that the tomato is cooked through and that the sauce is thick enough before cooling.
Add more salt and pepper to taste.
Procedure for cheese sauce
In a pan over low-medium heat, melt the butter.
Add in the milk.
Once the milk is nice and warm, pop in a few cubes of cheese, stirring consistently.
Let the cheese melt into the milk.
Season with pepper.
Let the sauce heat up but do not leave it at a boil.
Allow the sauce to thicken, but not too much.
Top this with candied bacon strips and a copious amount of the cheese sauce. (Make sure the cheese sauce reaches every corner)
Season with pepper.
Let the sauce heat up but do not leave it at a boil.
Allow the sauce to thicken, but not too much.
Assembling the
lasagna
Preheat the oven to 190 C.
Butter the lasagna
pan.
Add in the lasagna
noodles so they cover the bottom of your lasagna pan.
Layer the noodles with the Bolognese sauce.
Top this with candied bacon strips and a copious amount of the cheese sauce. (Make sure the cheese sauce reaches every corner)
Cover it with a generous layer of mozzarella and parmesan.
Continue to do this until you think you’ve reached the middle of the baking dish.
Add a generous sprinkle of blue
cheese after you've added the mozzarella and parmesan.
Return to repeating the normal procedure (sans the blue cheese) until you are at the top of the dish.
Add the final layer of Bolognese
sauce and cheese sauce. (No more candied bacon)
Add some cubes of butter
with the mozzarella, parmesan and blue cheese.
Check on the lasagna after 20-25 minutes for al dente-style noodles.
If the top-most layer is golden brown and crusty, it should be ready.
To make sure, use a knife or a barbecue stick to check if the last layer of noodles is soft enough.
Make sure to cool the lasagna before storing it in the refrigerator.
New things to come
xx Ashley