Lasagne Musaka

Preparation

1. Cut the aubergine into strips about 1 cm thick. Lay them on baking paper and brush both sides with olive oil.
2. Bake in an oven preheated to 175°C (conventional, top and bottom heat) for 15 minutes.
3. Finely chop the onion and celery, and coarsely grate the carrot. Heat a frying pan with olive oil, soften the onion, then add the celery and carrot and stir often with a spoon.
4. Turn the aubergine over and bake for another 15 minutes. When you take it out, leave the oven on at 175°C.
5. Once the onion, carrot and celery have softened, move them to a plate. Add the minced beef to the same pan.
6. When the meat has changed colour, mix it with the celery, onion and carrot. Add the tomato purée, passata and stock and simmer on a low heat for at least 30 minutes.
7. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and, stirring patiently, pour in the milk a little at a time. When the sauce thickens, add the nutmeg. This can take about 10 minutes — be patient!
8. Grease the inside of an ovenproof dish with butter.
9. Build the layers as you like. It works well to start and finish with the béchamel sauce. Add lasagne sheets, meat sauce, Parmesan and aubergine. Finish with a sprinkling of Parmesan on top.
10. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes.
11. Bake for another 20 minutes, covered.
12. Add the basil on top for flavour.

Why keep it in your rotation

A béchamel of butter, flour and milk with nutmeg ties the lasagne layers to the meat sauce and the baked aubergine, while Parmesan between the layers and on top rounds off the flavour.

The recipe is scaled for 8 servings, so it suits a bigger table. The work fits together neatly: the aubergine bakes in the oven while the base of the sauce — onion, celery and carrot — cooks in the pan, and you can make the béchamel in a saucepan while the meat sauce simmers on a low heat.