Beef Cheek Lasagna with Romano Sauce
Serves: 4
Time: 4 1/2 hours
Lasagna is one of those dishes that will always be around and that’s because it is just so frickin delicious!!!! It has proven it’s place in the culinary world being popular since the 14th century. I love a classic mince with Neapolitan sauce or veggie with ricotta but tonight we have gone for a touch more decadence and used a beef cheek ragu for the filling. If you haven’t ever attempted a beef cheek ragu before, don’t let the name put you off, whilst it does require a bit of cooking time beef cheeks are very easy to cook and have an amazingly rich flavour and soften down beautifully. I traditionally will cook a normal bolognese out for at least 3-4 hours so really it’s no more cook time and beef cheeks are still a relatively cheap product to source making this an all round winner that I am sure you will love.
Leftovers
There will be plenty of leftovers if you were just two people. So lunch will be exactly the same just don’t dress all of the salad. I served this one up for guests though so we polished off the whole lot.
What you'll need
1 large brown onion
4 cloves of garlic
3 sprigs of thyme
3 sprigs of oregano
6 stalks of celery
1 kg beef cheeks
1 1/2 cups of red wine
1 tin of whole peeled tomatoes
1 litre of beef stock
25g butter
3 tablespoons of plain flour
500ml of milk
150g romano cheese grated
100g cheddar cheese grated
6 slices of fresh lasagna sheets
1 bag of mixed salad leaves
From the Pantry
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon of dijon mustard
olive oil
salt and pepper
Swap it Out
Beef cheeks can be found these days in most supermarkets but if you do find yourself struggling then you can swap it out for some rump.
Prep and Cook
Preheat oven to 160c
Cook Ragu
Peel and finely dice onion and garlic.
Finely chop the herbs removing any large stalks.
Wash and slice just 3 piece’s of the celery into a fine dice.
Heat a large dutch oven or casserole dish with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Season your beef cheeks well on all sides with salt and pepper. Brown the cheeks (whole) well on all sides then remove from the dish.
Add a touch more oil and then add the onion, garlic, celery and herbs and saute until soft.
Add the red wine and reduce down by half.
Return the beef cheeks to the dish and cover with the whole peeled tomatoes and the beef stock. Place the lid on a set in the oven for 3 hours.
Make Romano Sauce (you can do this straight away, or once the cheeks are cooked)
Melt butter in a large pot.
Add the flour and cook out for 2 minutes, I like to use a balloon whisk to mix with.
Add the milk all at once and whisk really well. Continue to gently whisk until the sauce begins to thicken.
Add the grated romano cheese and whisk until all the cheese has melted.
Season with salt and remove from the heat.
Assemble Lasagna
Important
Even though we are using fresh lasagna sheets they will still soak up a lot of moisture, so less is best. Don't use all the pasta sheets if you don't need to. 3 layers of pasta is perfect any more than that and you will have a dry dish.
Once your meat has finished cooking the cheeks should be soft enough to pull apart with forks and the sauce should have reduced to a lovely thick consistency. If you need, continue to cook for longer until the cheeks are soft. (if in doubt it always pays to do a taste test, if the meat melts in your mouth it’s ready, don’t ever be afraid to cook for longer. If need be cheek every 15 minutes until you are satisfied with the result. I know I say this all the time but not every piece of meat will cook the same so always adjust the cook time where necessary).
Use two forks to pull the cheeks apart into small chunks.
Season with a little salt and pepper.
Scoop out enough mix to fill the base of your lasagna dish then cover with a sheet or two of lasagna depending on the size of your dish. You don’t want to have any sheets overlapping so cut down to the right size with kitchen scissors.
Top the lasagna with half of the remaining ragu and repeat the layers.
Place another layer of pasta on top of the ragu then cover with the romano sauce.
Top with the remaining grated cheese and bake in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for 40 minutes, until the cheese is golden on top, and the pasta is soft through.
Make Salad
Wash and finely slice the remaining celery.
Mix through the salad leaves.
Combine the red wine vinegar and dijon mustard in a jar with 1 tablespoons of olive oil and shake well. I have gone for a very sharp dressing to cut the richness of the lasagna but you can adjust to personal preference.
Season well.
Once the lasagna has finished cooking, toss the dressing through the salad leaves with some fresh cracked pepper and sea salt flakes.
Serve in a large salad bowl beside the lasagna.
Plate it Pretty
Presentation for this one is super easy, the star is the lasagna but I don’t think this one requires any garnish so simply serve on a nice board as is with the salad in a nice bowl beside it.
Enjoy!
Lunch tomorrow
The dish got scrapped clean tonight so no leftovers but if you aren’t feeding four your lunch tomorrow will be delish!