Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of fresh lasagna noodles (that makes 4 layers of pasta in my baking pan)
• 3 cups of shredded cheese (mozzarella or swiss, or a mix of them)
• 1/2 cups of shredded parmesan cheese
• 
  Meat and vegetable sauce
  1.5lb of ground beef
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 carrots
• 3 stems of celery
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 lb of tomatoes (about 5 roma tomatoes)
• Bunch of fresh parsley
• Vegetable oil
• 
  Bechamel (white) sauce
  1 quart of milk
• 3.5oz of butter
• 3/4 cups of all purpose flour

How to prepare, step-by-step:

1. Prepare ingredients:

   

2. Start by preparing meat and vegetable sauce. Bring a pot of water to boil, cut each tomato’s skin cross-like and put them to the boiling water for 15-20 seconds. Then drain water and set them aside to cool down:

   

3. Peel and dice onion and all garlic. Warm big skillet with about 2 table spoons of vegetable oil (I usually take olive oil or sunflower one) over moderate heat. Move diced onions and garlic to the skillet and fry them until soft stirring from time to time (about 10-15 mins):

   

4. Skin carrots and shred them on big slots of the grater, add carrots to the skillet, mix and fry for 7-10 mins:

   

5. Add ground beef to the skillet, separate in into small pieces with the spatula:

   

6. Mix beef with carrots, garlic and onions and let it cook until ready, for about 20-25 mins, stir occasionally:

   

7. Add diced celery:

   

8. Clean and dice bell pepper and add it to the skillet:

   

9. Mix everything:

   

10. Cut each tomato, you boiled before, in half and remove hard stem parts, remove skin. Chop tomatoes finely in blender and pour them to the skillet:

    

11. Mix everything, salt to taste and let sauce cook for 5-7 mins:

    

12. Then add chopped fresh parsley, mix and remove from the burner – meat and vegetable sauce is ready:

    

13. Now it is time to prepare white bechamel sauce. Melt all butter in a sauce pan over moderate heat:

    

14. Add all flour, starting from now you will need to stir sauce all the time, to make sure it doesn’t burn and doesn’t form lumps:

    

15. Continue stirring until flour and butter are mixed together:

    

16. Then add all milk in slow stream (remember to stir!):

    

17. Continue stirring and cooking sauce until it becomes thick. Then remove it from the burner, it is ready:

    

18. Now it is time to assemble lasagna. Read carefully instruction of your lasagna noodles: some of them require pre-boiling, others may be used dry. If they require boiling, bring a big pot of water to boiling and add about 2 table spoons (that will help noodles to not stick together). I usually have 4 layers of noodles with 3 layers of meat and vegetable sauce in between; put portion of noodles (for one layer) to be water and boil for amount of time indicated in the instructions:

    

19. Carefully take cooked noodles out of water; they will be hot – rinse them with cold water, so they cool down a bit:

    

20. Arrange noodles on the bottom of the baking pan into one layer:

    

21. So put about 1/3 of the meat sauce over noodles in even layer:

    

22. Cover it with 1/4 of white bechamel sauce:

    

23. Spread 1 cup of shredded cheese:

    

24. Repeat with the rest of ingredients: layer of noodles, then layer of meat and vegetable sauce, then layer of white bechamel sauce and layer of cheese for 2 more times. Then cover with the final layer of noodles:

    

25. Spread the rest of the white bechamel sauce (you should have left about ¼ of all amount). Put lasagna to the oven preheated to 355F for 40-45 mins:

    

26. Then take baking pan from the oven, cover lasagna with a layer of shredded parmesan and put back to the oven for 10 mins more. Then take from the oven and set it aside for 10-15 mins before serving:

    

27. Lasagna can be served freshly prepared out of oven or it can be stored in fridge and reheated in microwave (this way it is much easier to cut it into portion pieces):