Super Express Lasagne

This delicious lasagne recipe is by Mary Berry, a British food writer and television presenter. She's an old school family cook and many of her recipes are ingenious time savers - like this one. It's the perfect dish when you fancy a sumptuous and satisfying lasagne but not the palaver of making sauces. This recipe cuts corners cleverly but is still home cooking made from scratch - just super quick - guaranteed half the prep time of a normal lasagne! The flavour combinations are also genius - it's really quite scrumptious. 

Ingredients 

• Pork mince - about 500 - 800g 
• Flour - 2 tbsp 
• Mushrooms - however many you fancy - sliced 
• Garlic ​- crushed 
• Sour cream or creme fraiche ​
• Spinach 
• Sage ​

• ​Passata or tinned tomatoes, crushed 
• Sundried tomato paste or ordinary tomato paste 
• Sugar - 1tsp, muscovado if you have it 
• Thyme - some sprigs 
• Lasagne sheets 
• Grated cheese - cheddar and Parmesan or similar 
• Sesame seeds (optional) 

Cooking - meat sauce first 
Cook the pork mince in a saucepan, stirring constantly to break up and cook evenly. 
Add flour and stir through, cook on for a minute. 
​Add  the mushrooms and garlic, stir through.
Add the sour cream, spinach and sage, stir through gently. 
Season to taste and remove from the heat. 

Prep the tomato sauce next 
​Mix the passata or tinned tomatoes, sun dried tomato paste, sugar and thyme - whizzing them with a hand mixer gives a nice smooth consistency.  

Assembly and Cooking 
Mary Berry soaks her lasagne sheets in water for a few minutes before assembling. You have to get this right - too much soaking and they fall apart. It does make them nice and soft though. 

The choice is yours: start with a layer of meat mix OR grease the lasagne dish and start with a layer of pasta sheets. 
Whatever, add a layer of meat mix and then a few blobs of the tomato mix. Cover with lasagne sheets. Repeat. 

End with a layer of meat - it can have gaps in it. Top it with cheese, and I like to add a hearty scattering of sesame seeds, which brown up nicely and add a light crunch. 

Cook for 30 to 35 minutes at 180 degrees, serve with veg such as kale, broccoli or cauliflower, and enjoy!