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With the wedding and festive season fast approaching, menus have undergone a complete makeover. The current trend is to tweak the traditional and classic to fit modern recipes and create innovative dishes that will go well with these festivities. Here is one such recipe that has undergone a makeover to fit your party menu.

Lasagna Bolognese Recipe
Ingredients
Bolognese Sauce:
2 oz. diced pancetta
1 Spanish onion or yellow onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
4 tbsp unsalted butter
11 oz Ground beef/chicken
4 oz Ground Italian sausage
1 freshly ground clove
Freshly ground cinnamon
1 tsp freshly ground black
pepper
2 lb peeled and chopped
tomatoes
1 cup whole milk
½ tsp sea salt
Lasagna noodles to make four layers in a 13x9 baking pan
1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Béchamel Sauce:
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose unbleached flour

Method:
Combine pancetta, onion, celery, and carrot in a pan, sauté with butter, and cook until onion turns pale gold. Add the beef, chicken, cook until brown.
Sprinkle clove, cinnamon, and pepper powder to the meat mixture, stir in tomatoes and bring to a simmer.
Pour in the milk and season with sea salt and simmer for 2 and ½ hours. Stir every 20 minutes.
For the Béchamel sauce:
Heat two cups of milk until almost boiling. In a separate pan melt the unsalted butter with the flour and stir rapidly with a spoon. Cook this for one minute and then remove from the heat. Slowly pour in the milk mixture and stir constantly until it begins to thicken. Season the sauce with some sea salt, and continue stirring until the right consistency has developed.
To Prepare the lasagna preheat the oven to 375°F and cook the lasagna according to instructions. Grease your baking pan with olive oil and layer your casserole dish with the noodles. Put a layer of lasagna noodles down first and layer on a third of the Bolognese sauce, then a third of the béchamel sauce and sprinkle some grated Parmesan. Repeat the process two more times and sprinkle grated Parmesan again.
Cover the casserole with aluminum foil, and bake in a pre-heated 375°F oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until the top begins to brown lightly. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving.

The writer is the executive chef at Accord Metropolitan, Chennai