Bush pig and porcini lasagna – memories of Tuscany

Fry the onion, carrot, bacon and celery (let’s be properly Italian and call it soffritto) in a good few tablespoons olive oil over medium heat until soft but not browned – it takes about 10 minutes. Remove and set aside. Turn the heat right up, add another splash of olive oil to the same pan and tumble in the mince. Do not stir it immediately. You want the mince to get a good caramelized layer on the bottom before you start breaking it up – this is pure flavour folks, what I like to call umami magic. Then add the soffritto back to the pan along with the garlic and tomato paste. Fry for a few minutes, then in goes the red wine. Allow it to bubble up and boil vigorously for a few seconds, then crumble in the stock cube and add a cup of water, the pepper, salt and cloves.

Cover the saucepan, put it on our smallest plate on its lowest setting and walk away. This needs a minimum of two hours to mature. Three is of course better. If your heat is low enough and the lid fits tight, there should be enough liquid, but check it from time to time and add only a few tablespoons of water if need be. At the end of cooking you want a meat ragu that is thick and nicely moist but not watery. Taste and adjust salt, you most likely will need quite a bit more. How much depends on the sodium levels of the stock cube you used.

Finely slice and fry the mushrooms in a generous bit of butter and set aside. To make the béchamel, melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan, add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon while you cook it over gentle heat for two minutes. Remove from the heat and add the hot milk little by little while you whisk it vigorously with a balloon whisk. Place it back on the heat and stir until it comes to the boil. Simmer for a good 10 minutes to thicken and allow the flour to cook. Remove from the heat and whisk in the salt, spices and egg yolk. Take care to do this fast so the yolk does not scramble.

Now it’s time to assemble your lasagna. NB: you want your lasagna to have as many layers as possible, so rather choose a smaller deep ovenproof dish, than a larger shallow one. Spoon some ragu in the bottom of the dish. Then top it with a sheet of fresh pasta, another layer of ragu, a layer of béchamel, a good sprinkling of parmesan, then another sheet of pasta, and on you go. Be sure to pop your layer of mushrooms in there somewhere as well. Your final layer should be béchamel, topped off with the last bit of parmesan. Bake the lasagna at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. Enjoy steaming hot with a green salad and a generous glass of two of that Terra Del Capo Sangiovese. Buon appetito!

Cook’s note: I much prefer fresh pasta pretty much always, but you can make your lasagna with dried pasta sheets if you prefer. Now many a dried lasagna pasta packet will say it’s OK to use the sheets dry and let your oven do all the work. I disagree. I have never liked the result when I’ve done this. If I do use dried pasta sheets, I pre-cook them for a good 8-10 minutes in plenty of vigorously boiling salted water and then lay them out flat on a tea towel to drain before I start assembling the lasagna. I also cover the lasagna dish with tinfoil for the first 20 minutes of cooking to keep it moist.