I tried Nigella Lawson recipes before ― especially by comparing them to my elf And carrot cake favorites.

While this wasn’t the recipe I ultimately settled on for either, they’ve been a pretty reliable runner-up each time, and I’ve invariably ended up applying some of its wisdom to the product final.

So, I felt that I could entrust her with hours of my time to achieve what she calls the “love lasagna” — especially considering how perfect his pasta philosophy seemed.

Nigella don’t ask us to make our own pasta (whose favorite lasagna memory centers on the sheets?), brown our meat separately from our vegetables, or spend hours cutting carrots into small cubes.

Instead, she wants us to focus our time and attention on what really matters; the stew (which she cooks for an hour for an earthy richness) and the roux (whose milk is infused with vegetable peels) are both true labors of love.

Let me start by saying I cut it in half his (huge) recipe and I’m glad I did. What I had left was more than enough for six people; two of us finished it in two days, but it was more about gluttony than actual portions.

I breathed a sigh of relief reading that aside from the onions, which we chopped and browned first, Nigella didn’t want me chop vegetables.

Instead, her recipe calls for us to blend bacon, carrots, celery, parsley, garlic, and thyme in a blender if we have one. If you chop by hand, the chef advises you “Don’t drive yourself crazy trying to get everything to perform as well as the CPU version.”

I was also asked to put my leftover vegetables in a pan.

So far it’s so easy, although his advice to mix the tomato puree in a glass of milk left me a little perplexed.

Once the onion was cooked, I preheated the onion, added the mixed vegetables for five minutes and added the mince. “I think I should tell you to remove all the vegetables to brown the meat, but I decided to just add them on top of what’s already in the pan,” Nigella wrote – his words to my lazy ears.

Once cooked, I added beef broth, canned tomatoes, and the tomato puree and milk mixture (which ended up being delicious in the final dish).

This is the only part I deviated from; my partner doesn’t drink alcohol, so to replace his red wine, I added the recipe I’ve perfected over dozens of dinner attempts (one part pomegranate molasses to one part soy sauce, three parts apple cider vinegar and four parts water).

While the stew was cooking in the oven, I infused the milk and let it sit. This part of the recipe was mostly unused – I was watching TV and crocheting.

I drained it (messy – sorry!) after 45 minutes and started making the béchamel.

I will say that it overlapped the cooking an hour’s stewbut I was able to remove the sauce before the béchamel had time to split ― bolognese sauce is pretty easy going, so don’t worry if you have to leave it a little longer to prioritize the more fussier béchamel.

I was alarmed by the watery appearance of the meat sauce at first, but was reassured to read that Nigelle reserves two ladles of this liquid to cover the top layer of the pasta.

This is why you don’t need to use fresh pasta or pre-boil the leaves.

Side note; some commentators I found Nigelle’s béchamel a little too thick. I didn’t do this, but opted for a five minute boil instead of seven. Stick to that if you’re unsure.

Then it was just a matter of assembly, which was easy (but read ahead so you don’t accidentally use too much or too little in one layer).

I found the four sheet approach and a bit by layer approach worked great for my lasagna recipe, even though I only used half its measurements – although if you’re making the thing with half an ingredient, you might want to use a shorter pan than one. usual if you prefer really juicy, jam-filled layers.

I let it rest for about an hour before covering it with mozzarella (I forgot the parmesan until afterwards) before putting it in the oven – at this point you can leave it for at least 30 minutes and up to two days if refrigerated.

And although the recipe took a long time, it wasn’t complicated and was definitely worth it.

The crispy, puffy top was delicious without being too hard or crunchy; the meat sauce was rich, meaty and perfectly seasoned.

Infusing the béchamel was also a great choice. We have the impression when reading the recipe that Nigella only adds extra steps for a reason; this is reflected in the final product.

The only thing I will say is that it’s not the cheesiest topping I’ve ever tasted, but that might be because I forgot to add the parmesan before adding it. cook (I grated it on top afterwards).

It only got better on the second day.

If I had to do it again, I would have chosen a smaller baking sheet since I was cutting the recipe in half. I didn’t notice any nastiness in the filling despite using a pan the same size as the full-size version, but it’s possible that it would have been even more delicious if I had made that adjustment.

This is the best lasagna recipe I’ve tried so far, so I get it all comments say they’ll never go back – sometimes love is worth the wait.