We all love lasagne, it really is a firm favourite.  This is not traditional because it has a cheese sauce but this is how we love it.  For me, the cheese goes so well with the meat sauce.

Ingredients
750/800g beef mince* 
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped 
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped 
1 tsp chilli powder 
200ml red wine 
4 tbsp tomato purée 
1 tin of tomatoes chopped or pulped 
700g passata  
2 tsp mixed Italian herbs 
2 tbsp sugar 
425ml milk 
50g flour 
50g butter  
150g cheddar, grated  
250g fresh lasagne sheets 
Parmesan - either rind or 1 tbsp Parmesan 
Salt 
Pepper

Method
Put 1 tbsp oil in a heavy based pan and the mince along with a tsp of salt and ½ tsp black pepper. Cook the mince over a fairly high heat until brown - expect this to take 15-20 minutes.  You want to cook it until all of the juice that has come out of the meat has disappeared and the mince has turned brown.  Put the mince to one side and reduce the heat to medium, put the onion into the pan and cook for 5-7 minutes until translucent, add the garlic and continue to cook for a few more minutes.  Put the meat back into the pot, add the chilli powder and leave for a few mins until the meat starts browning and caramelising on the bottom.

When the meat starts to get too dark, add the red wine and scrape the caramelised bits from the bottom.  Cook for a few minutes until the liquid has almost gone and add the tomato purée.  Mix well and cook for a few minutes - this is to remove the raw tomato taste.  Add the tomatoes, passata, herbs and sugar.  Mix thoroughly, add your Parmesan and cook on a medium heat for at least 20-30 minutes until it is reduced, rich and utterly delicious.  This sauce is richer than Bolognese but because of the creamy cheesy top layer the finished dish does not feel too much. 

While the sauce is bubbling away get your pasta sheets and cheese sauce ready. 

Bring a large pan of water to the boil. 

To make your béchamel add the butter and flour and vigorously stir until the butter has melted and for another minute.  Slowly add your milk a bit at a time, stirring to ensure there are no lumps as you go.  Leave the sauce to cook on a low heat for 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat, add the cheese and stir until melted.  Check the seasoning of both your cheese sauce and your meat sauce and adjust where necessary.  Remove the Parmesan.  Preheat your oven to 180c. 

When the water is boiling you want to turn off the heat and add your pasta sheets one at a time.  You want to leave them in the hot water for just about 2 minutes no more.  A note here - if you are using dried pasta sheets cook for maybe 10 minutes because you need them to be soft, just do a few sheets at a time. Carefully take out your sheets and lay on your board making sure they do not overlap.  Put a sheet of greaseproof paper or cling film if you need to to separate. 

In a large square dish add 2 ladles of the meat sauce and evenly spread over the bottom of your dish and top with pasta sheets.  My dish takes 1 whole sheet and a quarter sheet to cover my dish so I just cut a sheet into 4. 

The next meat layer I add just 1 ladle and spread it over, topping with another layer of pasta, meat, pasta etc.  I usually get 5 meat layers and 5 pasta layers.  I cover the last layer in all the cheese sauce.  Bake for 30-45 minutes until golden brown.  Cut into 9 portions. Serve with garlic bread.