Making lasagne is a time consuming fiddle, and despite likin it I generally can’t be bothered. But in a spirit of adventure the other day we tried out a quick way of making it: use bread, not pasta (yes, really, it does work!), and some of the contents of the freezer. There’s no making Bolognaise sauce from scratch, nor having to cook sheets of pasta, so it’s fairly quick and easy.

This is flexible, and you can obviously substitute according to what you like and/or have available – it’s a good way to use up some of the odd portions of food languishing in the freezer (or just to make a bit more room). It would be just as easy to do veggie or even vegan. Oh, and all the frozen ingredients, and the bread, were homemade!

What follows made two hearty meals for the two of us. You should adjust quantities as necessary. This is what we used …

For the meat sauce
1 portion frozen Bolognaise sauce, thawed
1 portion frozen chilli con carne, thawed
a good quantity of frozen tomato sauce, thawed
a pack of frozen barbeque sauce, thawed

For the white sauce
butter
flour
milk
grated cheese
black pepper
a pack of frozen onion sauce, thawed (that’s white sauce with onions)

For the lasagne
5 (or more) large 10mm thick slices of bread, crusts removed

To finish
butter
grated cheese
black pepper

And this is what we did …
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/180C fan.
2. Well butter a large roasting dish (I used our largest glass roasting dish).
3. Roll out the bread slices so they are thin, like actual lasagne.
4. Put all the meat sauce ingredients in a saucepan and heat through thoroughly.
5. Meanwhile make a good thick cheese sauce according to your usual method (don’t be mean with the cheese); add and blend in the onion sauce.
6. When the sauces are ready, put a layer of meat sauce in the bottom of the roasting dish. (You’re aiming for at least 2 full sets of layers.)
7. Now add a layer of bread to cover the whole dish, and a sprinkle of grated cheese.
8. Follow this with a layer of cheese sauce.
9. Repeat the layers as required, finishing with a layer of cheese sauce.
10. Sprinkle with some more grated cheese and black pepper.
11. Bake in the over for 30-45 minutes until browning nicely.
12. Serve with a robust red wine.

This was really tasty. The barbeque sauce and the chilli gave it a nice tangy, but gentle kick.

However, do not expect this to cut nicely into portions when it is hot; it’ll probably collapse, but will taste just as good. However when cooled it should be solid enough to portion prettily before reheating in the microwave.

Sorry no picture! It was so good we ate it !