Talking Italian, part 1

As you know, Martin and I love to travel, but our wings have been clipped during Covid.
To make up for it, we decided to try a new lasagne recipe and imagine ourselves back in Rome. When we were there, we ate in a restaurant called Old Marconi on a couple of nights.
It was like an old fashioned beer kellar and had lots of radio equipment around the walls. (Hence the name Marconi!)
It is one of the oldest Beer Houses, as they call them, in Rome and its just 10 minutes away from the main train station.
Given that Rome is known for being pricey, this was one of the cheapest that we found with half a litre of wine for just 5 euros! (It was a few years ago). I had gnocchi, I always pronounce the ‘G’ when saying it, which makes Martin laugh. He also laughs when I talk about ‘phishing’ instead of pronouncing it ‘fishing’! I have previously mentioned that he teases me a lot about my Dorset accent.
We visited the Santa Maria Church, which has a Capuchin Monk Cemetery attached. In the chapels there were the bones of 4,000 monks artistically arranged into tableaus.
They were really good, but eerie.
The rest of the bones are arranged to make arches and designs and even light fittings.
Back to the lasagne, it says on the recipe that this will serve 4, well we had it for 2 days in a row and then we had 2 portions left. It’s a very filling meal.

Ingredients
For the ragu:
2 tbsp olive oil
900gm beef mince
2 onions, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 level tbsp plain flour
150ml beef stock
1 tbsp redcurrant jelly
3 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp chopped thyme
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
For the lasagne:
12 lasagne sheets
75g mature cheddar, grated
Method
Preheat the oven to160C/325F/Gas 3.
Heat a large frying pan until hot and add the oil. Cook onion and garlic until softened.
Add the mince and cook until browned.
Add the flour and stock and bring to the boil.
Add the redcurrant tomato purée and thyme, stir well.
Stir in the canned tomatoes. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 20 mins
Make a cheese sauce
Using a 2-pint shallow ovenproof dish, layer the meat, then a layer of sauce, then a layer of pasta. Repeat ending with a layer of pasta. Season. Sprinkle over the cheddar.
Cook in the middle of the oven for about 45 minutes – or until golden brown on top, bubbling around the edges and the pasta is soft.