Mini Lasagna Cups on a Monday

In honor of the famous Garfield Monday hating, here is a beautiful recipe from Cake Crumbs and Beach Sand,  little Lasagna cups! I can see Garfield eating like 500 of these that were prepared for a party. Enjoy!!

Ingredients // makes 12 lasagne cups

15 lasagne sheets – I used 6 curly lasagne sheets (the long rectangular ones) to go around the cups and 9 normal sheets cut into small squares for the base and layers

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

250g mushrooms, roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

2 sticks celery, trimmed and chopped

A good handful of fresh thyme leaves

500g beef mince

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon sugar

Sea salt and black pepper

Small bunch of fresh basil

Cheese sauce

200ml creme fraiche

1/2 cup ricotta

1/2 cup grated parmesan 

1 lemon, juiced

Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper

Grated Mozzarella for topping

Method:

Heat olive oil in pan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, carrot, mushrooms, celery and thyme and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until softened. Stir occasionally. 

Add mince and brown for a few minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and 1 cup water. Season generously with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes stirring every so often. Remove lid and cook for a further 20 minutes until nice and thick and sauce has reduced. Remove from heat and add torn basil leaves. 

Preheat oven to 200C. 

Drop lasagne sheets into boiling water for a few minutes until they are bendable but not too soft. If you are using normal lasagne, cook in salted water for a few minutes less than the packet instructions. Drain and set aside. Don’t lay them on top of each other or they stick together. Found that out the hard way! 

Combine all cheese sauce ingredients well in a bowl.

Grease a 12 portion muffin tin. Cut 6 long curly lasagne sheets down the centre lengthways to make 12 pieces. Line the edges of each cup with 1 cut sheet (so wrap it around to make a circle). Cut some flat sheets into squares big enough to cover the base, press one into the base of each cup (inside the curly circular outer part). Spoon a tablespoon of the mince mixture into each, then a generous tablespoon of cheese sauce on top. Place another cut piece of pasta on top of the sauce. Then add another spoonful of mince mixture, then cheese sauce, then pasta sheet again. Finally place some mince mixture, cheese sauce and sprinkle with grated Mozzarella. I used up every last bit of my mince mixture, so don’t be stingy on the filling. You want the filling to almost spill out when cooking so fill the cups to the top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the pasta edges are fight-over-crisp and the sauce and cheese is deliciously bubbling. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving with a delightful fresh salad. Or you can just do as I did and stand over the kitchen bench shovelling them into your gob. 

I didn’t have any issue getting the cups out of the tin. If any of them do stick pop a spoon gently into the tin and lift the cup out.

Would I make them again given how finicky they are to make? Absolutely!