Tuna Lasagne

A recipe that would certainly make Garfield happy. It's cheap, it's easy and it's delicious . You need no paw to like this too. Just make sure you cook enough of  to avoid any cat fight at the table.Okeeey I'm overreacting, too much tomatoes and tuna flake are invading my system right now, it simply has to get out. So grab your pans cause we're making some yummy lasagne!

Tunalicious Lasagne ala Emily

Step 1: Make the Tuna and Tomato sauce

Put 4 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, heat under medium heat. Add in medium size chopped onion, sautee until translucent. Add in 2 cloves of crushed garlic and cook until aromatic. If I were Italian, I bet I will be hearing ''Mio Dio! or  Mama Mia'' and get pitted olives throwns at me for using canned or packed tomatoes in a pasta dish. But then, I like to make things easy so instead of having fresh tomatoes , I  settled for a mass produced chopped tomatoes----in a pack. Practical and efficient. Add in 2 packs ( about 400 g each) of chopped tomatoes into the sauteed onion and garlic. Stir in a handful of chopped oregano, thymes, basil and throw in 2 bay leaves. Add a tablespoon of white sugar and season well with salt in pepper. Stir in 3 cans of tuna in oil (drained) and take the sauce out from the heat.

Step 2: Make the Bechamel sauce

Bechamel sauce is a white sauce used in many French cuisine  as well as  in some Italian dishes such as lasagne. To make this basic white sauce, you need to make a roux. A what? A roux doesn't have fangs , breathe fire or walk on 8 legs, sidewards.It is  a cooked mixture of flour and fat ,usually butter. The thickness of this  sauce depends on the ratio of flour and butter.  Roux is traditionally equal parts of butter and flour but you can add more butter if you want your sauce to have a richer flavour. Under medium heat, heat 80 g of butter until melted, add in 50 g of flour and stir well. The roux will be rendering a freshly baked bread aroma after a minute or two. Add in 750 ml of warm milk while stirring constantly. The sauce thickens as it cooks. Season well with salt and pepper, add in about 50 g of grated parmesan cheese and take it out from the heat.



Step 3: Assemble the Lasagne

Spoon enough tuna sauce to cover the bottom of you casserole dish or baking pan. Cover the tuna sauce with lasagne sheets.  Some lasagne requires precooking. The one I used however don't have to be preboiled. Spread some bechamel sauce over the lasagne and cover it with thinly sliced mozzarella. I used about 4 mozarella balls in this recipe. You can use shredded melty cheese as well. Repeat this process until all the ingredients are used up. The last layer has to be the bechamel sauce. It will crisp up as it bakes. Sprinkle  50 g of shredded parmesan cheese. Bake lasagne at 180 °c for about 35 to 40 minutes or until the bechamel sauce turns golden brown and bubbly at the edges.

Serve pipping hot with green salad ( I know! I know!) and crusty garlic bread.

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Come to mama!