Before you start, preheat the oven to approximately Gas Mark 6.
Bolognese Sauce
1) Fry off the onions (if including them – you won’t ever see an onion on this blog since I can’t stand them) and garlic (if you’re not including onions, add the garlic with the mince because otherwise it’ll burn and be really bitter and yucky) in some Fry Light.
2) Add the mince and fry until brown. Drain any excess fat.
3) Add chopped tomatoes. Fill the can with water and add that to the pan.
4) Mix in herbs/bolognese mix and stir until well blended.
5) Simmer until the sauce has thickened to a consistency you’re happy with and then remove from the heat.
Variations: Could add veg (Slimming World usually recommends carrots and celery) or mushrooms; use meat substitute (eg Quorn) to make it vegetarian; could add bacon/pancetta for extra flavour (which should be added with the onions/before the mince).
Once the bolognese sauce is cooked (or simmering, if you can keep an eye on it at the same time!) start making the white sauce.
Slimming World Cheese Sauce
1) Place the quark into a large mixing bowl and beat until relatively smooth.
2) Add the fromage frais to the quark and mix well.
3) In a separate dish, beat two eggs.
4) Add the eggs to the cheesy mix and stir well.
5) Add a pinch or two of nutmeg to the whole thing and mix.
As you can see, this is the super simplest cheese sauce you’re ever going to make! The amounts above are suggested only; this is one sauce where you can stick it all in and, as long as the ratios are pretty much the same (though you never really need to double or half herbs/spices even if you’re doubling or halfing a recipe) it’ll all be good!
So then, you just need to put it all together in lasagne form. If you cooked the bolognese and took it off the heat before you started the cheese sauce, you’ll just need to give it a good stir.
Layering Up
1) Take an oven-proof dish and place a layer of the meat sauce.
2) Cover with lasagne sheets (you could double layer them for a more substantial carbs hit – though be aware that, as ever, fresh pasta is not free on Slimming World).
3) Cover the lasagne sheets with the cheese sauce (the sauce is much gloopier than cheese sauce would usually be, so you need to be pretty careful when spreading it over the pasta sheets – it’s also worth noting that it’s kind of important to make sure all the pasta is absolutely covered so you don’t end up with cardboard like pasta!)
4) Pour/smooth another layer of the bolognese sauce on top of that and cover with lasagne sheets.
5) Cover with one last layer of cheese sauce (again, I can’t stress enough how important it is to cover absolutely all of the pasta, so you don’t end up with burnt, cardboard-y pasta corners!)
5) Top with grated parmesan (weigh it for absolute certainty).
6) Bake in the oven at about Gas Mark 6 for 40 minutes (adjusting according to the size, ie if it’s huge it might take longer but if it’s individual size it might take more like 30 minutes).
And voila, Slimming World (nearly) Sin Free Lasagne!
Ingredients
(to make approx. enough for 4 people)
1 pack of extra lean mince beef (less than 5% to be free on Slimming World)
1 tin of large tin of chopped tomatoes
3-4 cloves of garlic
Italian herb mix/mixed dried herbs/Spag Bol mix (eg Colmans/Schwartz)
Water
Any veg (onions/mushrooms/carrots/celery)
Frylight
1 – 1 1/2 tubs of Quark
2-3 tbsp VLF Fromage Frais
pinch of nutmeg
2 eggs
lasagne sheets (the number will depend on size of your dish; whether you double layer the pasta; and if you do more layers)
grated parmesan
Voila!
