Lasagna with Ground Meat and Walnuts

Lasagna is one of those dishes that everyone loves, and its preparation allows for a lot of creativity and adaptation. You can replace the pasta with zucchini or pumpkin, use mushrooms instead of ground meat, omit the béchamel sauce, etc. This time, we present a version where we omitted the tomato sauce and added coarsely chopped walnuts to the ground meat.

Details

  • Preparation Time: 20 minutes
  • Cooking Time: 40 minutes
  • Difficulty: 2
  • Spiciness: 0
  • Number of Servings: 6

Ingredients

Béchamel

  • 80 g Butter, unsalted

  • 2 spoons Wheat flour, white, multi-purpose

  • 800 ml Milk, whole milk

  • 100 g Cheese, Parmesan, grated

Meat sauce

  • 2 spoons Oil, olive

  • 1 piece Onion, raw

  • 3 pods Garlic, fresh

  • 600 g Meat, beef, ground

  • 0.5 teaspoons Thyme, fresh

  • 50 g Walnuts

  • 100 ml Alcohol, Wine, White

  • 20 g Butter, unsalted

  • pieces Salt, table

  • 300 g Pasta, noodles, fresh

  • 100 g Cheese, Parmesan, grated

Steps

  1. Peel the onion and garlic, then finely chop them separately. Place a larger pan on the stove and heat a little oil in it. Sauté the chopped onion until translucent. Add the chopped garlic and continue to sauté. When the garlic becomes fragrant, add the ground meat, thyme, and coarsely chopped walnuts. Season with pepper and salt to taste, and continue to cook while stirring until the meat turns light brown. Pour in the wine, wait for the alcohol to evaporate, then remove the pan from the heat.

  2. Prepare the béchamel sauce. Melt butter in a saucepan and sprinkle in the flour, which you toast to a golden brown while constantly stirring. Slowly pour in the milk while stirring, making sure there are no lumps. Season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg to taste. Cook the béchamel over moderate heat for about 10 minutes or until it thickens appropriately, then stir in the grated Parmesan. If the sauce becomes too thick, add a little more milk, then remove the saucepan from the heat.

  3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil (the oil prevents the cooked pasta from sticking). Add the lasagna sheets to the boiling water and cook for 1 to 2 minutes—just enough to soften them slightly. Remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon and place them on a damp, spread-out kitchen towel.

  4. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). In a greased baking dish, layer the components in the following order: béchamel sauce, lasagna sheets, ground meat with walnuts, and then lasagna sheets again. Repeat the process until you run out of ingredients. Finish with a layer of béchamel sauce, then sprinkle grated Parmesan on top. Bake the lasagna in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the top turns golden brown and crispy.

  5. Once baked, loosely cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes to cool slightly and set. Cut it into pieces of your desired size, serve on plates, and enjoy immediately.

Nutrition Information (Per 100g)

  • Calories: 321.39 kcal
  • Fat: 21.83 g
    • Saturated Fat: 9.16 g
  • Carbohydrates: 14.41 g
    • Sugars: 0.35 g
  • Protein: 15.39 g
  • Fiber: 0.28 g