Chicken Lasagne - recipe

I've got a time coming up in about a month where I am not going to be able to do too much cooking so I have been slowing building up frozen meals in the freezer in late foil dishes. This weekend I have made a chicken potato pie for dinner and one for the freezer and a couple of large chicken lasagnes which should do us for about four meals with vegetables or salads.

The lasagne recipe comes from a great recipe book my mother in laws gave me several years ago called 'Everyday Italian'. while I have not cooked my way through it, the recipes in it all get made again and again. My very favourite tiramisu recipes comes from this book too.

This recipe has mozzarella and cream ( I used ricotta) as part of the topping. I was able to use the cheese I made the night before as part of this dish.

Lasagne Recipe

Topping
250g lasagne sheets
1/2 cup grated mozzarella
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup cream
3 tbs parmesan

Cheese sauce
60 g butter
1/3 cup flour
2 cups of milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

 Meat sauce
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed (I always use way more garlic)
500g chicken mince (or beef mince)
2 x 400g cans of tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine
I added about a cup of chopped mushrooms
1/2 tsp of ground oregano
1/4 tsp of ground basil (I used a couple of cubes of frozen pesto)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Brush shallow oven proof dish with melted butter or oil. Line with dry lasagne sheets, breaking them to fill any gaps and set aside.

2. To make cheese sauce, melt the butter in a pot. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and slowly add the milk stirring until smooth. Return to heat and cook while stirring over a medium heat until sauce boils. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Stir in grated cheese, season and set aside.

3. To make the meat sauce, heat the olive oil in large pan. Add the onion and garlic and stir over a low heat until the onion is tender. Add the mince and brown well, breaking up with a fork as it cooks. Stir in the tomatoes,  (mushrooms), wine, herbs and salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Spoon one-third of the meat sauce over the lasagne sheets. Top with one third of the cheese sauce. Arrange another layer of lasagne sheets over the top.

5. Continue layering, finishing with lasagne sheets. Sprinkle with combined mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. Pour the cream over the top. Sprinkle with parmesan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden.