GRANNY MARY'S BOLOGNESE (And LASAGNA)

Ingredients

3 to 4 lbs ground beef.

6-8 celery stocks (chopped finely-ish).

4 to 6 carrots (chopped finely-ish).

2 to 3 yellow onions (chopped finely-ish)

4 + tbspns tomato paste more or less.

3 to 4 medium cans of diced tomatoes.

Bag of mushrooms roughly chopped (not necessary...I throw some in if I have some or canned mushrooms...or not...).

2 cups of chicken or beef broth more or less

2 to 3 cups of red wine (whatever is to hand...old white...old red... whatever... and I have mixed them before)

2 tbspns Italian seasoning.

4 ish Bay Leaves

Several sheets of lasagna noodles (uncooked).

Mozzarella enough for slices foe one layer per lasagna

1 to 2 cups white flour

1/2 cup? butter

6 ? cups milk

1 to 2 cups shredded parmazan

Directions

Turn oven onto high.

Put meat in roasting pan and "cut" it up with pastry cutter; place into hot oven. remove when brown.

Spoon meat into large stock pot.

Finely chop all vegetables; put into roasting tin along with italian seasoning; remove when veggies have well "sweated".

Spoon veggies into the stock pot.

Add: chicken stock, bay leaves, wine, pepper (I add salt at the very end, often the chicken stock has its own salt),diced tomatoes, tomato paste.

Bring to a boil and then turn down. Reduce sauce to a lovely thickness.

It tastes better after a day or two of sitting

Making up the lasagnas:

place just under an inch of the meat sauce into 2 lasagna dishes.

layer uncooked lasagna noodles onto the meat.

slice the mozzarella and place evenly onto the noodles.

repeat... leaving enough room for the bechamel sauce; it's often a tight squeeze.

Make bechamel sauce... (See separate recipe). Add the parmezan cheese and I shake in a bit of whatever seasoning I feel like... Italian? tarragon? whatever....pepper... or nothing at all.

Spread the sauce over the lasagna and freeze.

Thaw before baking.