Have made one today (what a lot of faffing about!) because we have 3 grandchildren arriving tomorrow. Used to make quite often but very rarely these days. So: meat first, then bechamel, then pasta, then meat, bechamel, pasta, then meat, bechamel....and the dish is full. I'm sure finishing with bechamel is right, I will top with grated cheese when it goes in the oven tomorrow, but there are only two layers of the pasta. Is this right? Just wondering!

For some reason and I don't know why I do this, I put a sheet of pasta on the bottom despite reading most recipes that stipulate putting a layer of sauce then the pasta, then the sauce then pasta etc. I do it because I like a firm bottom when I lift it out of the dish and not slopping all over the place. Probably though if your pasta is el dente the sauce on the bottom will suck it up anyway and achieve the same thing. I am not the Queen of L it is fair to say.

Giorgio Locatelli says ragu on the bottom, Marcella Hasan says pasta on the bottom. Both are authoritative, so please yourself....

It's just the two layers of thin pasta sheets that worries me. It'll taste good I hope.

You could alway make the layers double for extra firmness. Just make sure there's plenty of bechamel and meaty sauce either side of the double layers.

I always put a layer of pasta on the bottom, one in the middle and another on top.
While I always use fresh pasta and cook it for ages I do sometimes think that the bottom layer is not as tender as it could be.

To my surprise the lasagne held together and served well in spite of the high ratio of ragu and sauce to pasta. The bechamel/cheese sauce was bliss - thanks to Jamie Oliver! I sweated leeks in butter for about 30 minutes, then added flour to make a roux, added milk by degrees to make the white sauce, when it had thickened and cooked for a while I blitzed it all in the blender adding seasoning and grated cheese at that point. Will always do this (if I do it again, which I will because it was a great success with children and the olds) in the future.

Stephanie T the leek white sauce is also lovely as a Cauliflower and Brocolli Cheese recipe.
Regards,
Dawn.

I've just made this sauce but opted not to blitz it as I wanted the texture from the leeks in the lasagne. It's in our fridge for dinner tomorrow so I hope it's ok unblitzed. I started my layers with the ragu. (I made Chelsea Winter's spag bol and used that as the ragu)

Griz, it should be fine. One of the three children would have baulked at 'bits' in the sauce so I chose to blitz.