We were visiting my mother.  She is a lovely lady of Polish heritage, that was taught how to cook everything Italian after she married my father. The relatives from the old country took pity on her. When she made pasta, it was from scratch and rolled out with an old broom handle, and dried out on the bed on clean sheets. I said I’d make lasagna and she came out with some fresh mozzarella.  When I told her I was doing in the style of Bologna, she looked aghast, but said ok.  There was left over tofu from the night before, so I rolled up my sleeves and made a vegetarian Bolognese sauce.  It was good, as Ash Wednesday was that week.  Here I have shown you how to make the vegetarian version. You can make it vegan by substituting vegan parm and brewers yeast for the Reggiano Parmigiana cheese. The end product is in our opinion, delicious.  Lasagna, or as it is called in Bologna lasagne (because it is layers and therefor referred in the plural, is much simpler.  It has four (4) ingredients; the noodles, preferably green ones (made with spinach), bechamel, bolognese (ragu), and Parmigiano Reggiano. That’s it.

If you don’t make your on noodles, we found it pretty much impossible to find the spinach lasagna sheets, so we had my cousin send some from Europe.  We also cheated a bit and added a touch more sauce so we didn’t have to pre-cook the noodles.  We don’t buy the “special” no boil, just the regular ones.  Once you try this version, we are pretty sure you won’t want the overly cheesy version you will get in most restaurants outside of Bologna.  It is delicious and light. The flavours of the ragu, Bolognese sauce, really shine through, as does the Parmigiano Reggiano.  Let’s get to it.  Follow these simple instructions for a mouth watering dish your friends and family will love.

Serves 6-8 people

Preheat oven to 350F/180C/Gas 4