Porter lasagna with ricotta cheese

Here we go again! A recipe for one of my favorite things in the world: lasagna. I added porter beer to the meat sauce, and beer syrup and habanero chili to the bechamel sauce. And yes, you need to make your own bechamel sauce. Buying it pre-made is just.... wrong.
This recipe is a bit more time consuming than the recipes I've posted so far, but it's worth it!

What you will need:

For the meat sauce:
Two packages of minced meat
Veggies! I used 3 onions, 4 carrots, 4 tomatoes, a bit of sun dried tomatoes as well as a mixed bowl of frozen veggies. I usually just look for whatever is in the fridge and the freezer.
1-2 cans of tomato paste
Ketchup
A large bottle of porter beer (approximately 0.5L)

For the bechamel sauce:
50 grams of butter
50 grams of flour
680 grams of milk
Salt and pepper
Beer syrup
A small, chopped habanero chili
(the syrup and chili can be substituted by sweet chili sauce)

For assembling:
Lasagna sheets (I used whole wheat, but regular ones will do as well)
Fresh basil
Ricotta cheese
Fresh mozzarella

How to make it

The meat sauce:
Start by frying the onions (in oil, butter or whatever suits you best) until they are soft and shiny. Add the meat. As soon as the meat is browned, add the veggies and then the tomato paste and a good squeeze of ketchup. Stir it and add the porter beer. Turn down the heat on the stove and let it simmer until the meat sauce is firm.

The bechamel sauce:
Melt the butter in a casserole and then add the flour. Stir until it's even and then add a bit of milk. Again, stir until it's even. Continue this process until you've added all the milk. Yes, it takes a while, but a good bechamel sauce is worth the hassle! In the beginning, it's important just to add dashes at a time. The more milk you've added and the more liquid it gets, the more milk you can add without making lumps. If you do make lumps, just keep stirring and the sauce will smoothen out. Do not add more milk until it's smooth.
When you've added all the milk, you can spice it up with beer syrup, chopped chili and lots of salt and pepper. Add a bit at a time and taste it before you add more.

Assembling:
Heat up the oven to 175 C.
Put lasagna sheets at the bottom of a baking dish in a single layer. Add a bit of meat sauce (I like to have a lot of layers, so I make the layers thin!), a bit of bechamel sauce and add dashes of ricotta cheese and fresh basil. Repeat until you run out of space and/or you run out of sheets or meat sauce!

Finish off by layering lasagna sheets, add a bit of bechamel sauce and top with fresh mozzarella cheese.
As the meat sauce is dry and the sheets need to be cooked, I pour about 300 grams of water in the edges of the baking dish. This will allow the sheets to cook without making the meat sauce wet.
Bake in the oven for about half an hour (depends on the oven). The lasagna is finished when the mozzarrella cheese is crunchy and the sheets are al dente, i.e. that it's cooked but with a bit of bite (use a fork to check). I like it to cool just a little bit so that you can really taste all the flavors, but if you can't wait, then go ahead!

That's it! Bon appetit - let me know how it works out for you!

Lots of Love,
Becks