A twist on the household classic, and I of course have dug out the slow cooker to make the recipe even easier. Prepping the red sauce to to cook throughout the day, it means at dinner time all that needs doing is to make a white sauce and assemble those beautiful layers. Lovely, and so worth it.

Serves: 4

Cooking time: Slow cooker ragu 6+ hours + 1 hour assembly and final cook

Ingredients:

For the Ragu:

• 6 Caramelised Onion Sausages
• 1 Onion
• 3 Garlic Cloves
• 1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes
• 500 ml Chicken Stock
• 100 ml Red Wine
• 150 ml Milk
• 1 tsp Marmite
• Dash of Worcester Sauce
• 2 or 3 tsp Demerara Sugar
• 3 Sprigs of Rosemary
• 3 Sage Leaves
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp Cornflour

For the Blue Cheese Béchamel:

• 50g Butter
• 2 tbsp Plain Flour
• 500ml Milk
• 2 Bay leaves
• Pinch of Nutmeg
• 100g Cheddar Cheese
• 125g Blue Cheese
• 20g Parmesan
• 1 tbsp Panko Breadcrumbs
• Thyme
• Lasagne Sheets

Instructions:

1. Start off by finely chopping the onions and slowly softening with some oil in a frying pan. Crush the garlic and throw in the pan.
2. Meanwhile, cut down the side of the sausage skin and remove, leaving just the sausage meat to roughly pull apart into meatball-sized pieces.
3. Once the onions and garlic are softened (~7 mins ish), put in the slow cooker pot. Return the pan to the heat and throw in the broken up sausage. Cook until just beginning to brown, before adding in with the onions
4. Add the tinned tomatoes, chicken stock, wine, and milk, stirring all together. Add the marmite, Worcester sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, rosemary, and sage leaves.
5. Give it a stir and put the lid on. Cook on low heat for 6 – 12 hours.
6. About 1 hour before dinner, remove the slow cooker lid to allow it to thicken up.
7. Put the cornflour in a ramekin and mix with a couple of tbsp of the sauce from the slow cooker pot. Once combined into a paste add back to the slow cooker and stir in.
8. Break up the sausage meat gently using a fork so it forms a bolognese-esq consistency.
9. Meanwhile, for the béchamel sauce heat milk with bay leaves, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and set aside.
10. In another pan, melt butter and add flour to form a roux. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously until a smooth sauce forms. Mix in most of the cheddar and blue cheese, leaving some back to top with.
11. Once the ragu has thickened, repeating step 7 if necessary) get ready to assemble.
12. Layer ragu, lasagne sheets, and béchamel sauce, fitting as manhy layers as possible in.
13. End with a layer of white sauce. Mix the remaining cheese with parmesan, thyme, and panko breadcrumbs. Sprinkle this on top of the lasagne.
14. Bake the lasagne in the oven for 35-40 minutes, until bubbling and hot.

Serving note: Serve with a side salad, garlic bread, and wine, enjoying it on an autumnal evening listening to Adele, I drink wine.