Pulled Beef Cheek Lasagne
Slowly cooked beef cheeks bring an amazing depth of flavour to this twist on the classic Italian lasagne.
How long will it take?
4 ½ hours
What’s the serving size?
Serves 6
What do I need?
1 kg beef cheeks
1 cup plain flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped
1 leek, trimmed and chopped, white part only
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
4 thyme sprigs
2 rosemary sprigs
1 cup red wine
1/3 cup tomato paste
400 g tin of tomatoes
4 fresh lasagne sheets
2 cups grated mozzarella
1 cup grated Grana Padano
2 large sheets fresh lasagne
For Béchamel Sauce
50 g butter
50 g plain flour
1 litre milk
How do I make it?
- Preheat oven to 150C.
- Heat half the olive oil in a large casserole dish over medium-high heat.
- Combine flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add beef cheeks and toss to coat. Shake off excess flour and then add to casserole. Cook, turning until browned. Remove from casserole dish and set aside.
- Add remaining oil to the casserole dish over medium-high heat. Add onion, leek, garlic, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary and 1 tablespoon of the red wine. Cook for 1 minute, then reduce heat to medium and cover with a lid. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the onion and leek have softened. Add beef cheeks back to casserole dish and add tomato paste. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add tomatoes and red wine. Increase heat to bring to the boil, then cover and transfer dish to the oven.
- Cook, covered for 3 hours or until beef is very tender. Remove lid and increase temperature to 200C. Cook for 30 minutes or until the liquid has reduced a little.
- Remove beef from casserole dish and use two forks to pull it apart. Place pulled beef in a bowl with 1 cup of the braising liquid.
- Make béchamel by melting butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Whisk milk into butter and flour mixture, a little at a time. When all milk has been added continue to cook, stirring, until the mixture has thickened.
- Reduce oven temperature to 180C. Grease a baking dish.
- Add half of the pulled beef mixture to the dish, top with 1/3 of béchamel, then 1/3 mozzarella and 1/3 Grana Padano. Add a lasagne sheet/s to cover, then repeat layering as before. Finish with a layer of lasagne, then top with remaining béchamel, mozzarella and Grana Padano.
- Cover dish with foil and cook in oven for 35 minutes, then remove foil and cook for 10 minutes or until the cheese is golden.
