250g ground beef or beef/pork mixture
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 carrot
50-100ml of red wine
400g canned tomatos
a few pinches of dried thyme and dried oregano
salt, pepper, chili flakes to taste

pasta sheets that don't need pre-cooking
200g-400g creme fraiche or sour cream with high fat contents (above 25%), you can also mix sourcream with heavy cream
80g parmesan cheese, preferrably not the pre-ground stuff



Sauce:

In a sauce pan cook the ground meat on high heat until it browns. No need to add oil to this, the meat provides its own fat. When browned park it in a container, we're going to re-add this later.

Without cleaning out the sauce pan add chopped onion and garlic as well as finely chopped carrot. Add a splash of wine, stir well making sure you scrape any parts of the meat that may have stuck to the bottom off the pan. Cook until the liquid has evaporated and you've got soft onion pieces and softish carrot pieces. If they're not softened enough add more wine and repeat.

Then add the canned tomatos and re-add the meat, add the herbs and stir. Let simmer for ~20 minutes, stirring occasionally. If your tomatos are whole break them down with your cooking utensil.

Salt and pepper the sauce to taste. Add chili flakes if you want some heat.

Assembly:

Take a casserole dish or deep metal pan. Spoon a thin layer of sauce into the bottom so the first layer of pasta sheets can rest on it. On top of the first layer of pasta sheets add a good amount of sauce, then drizzle or drape some of your creme fraiche / sour cream on top. The amount of creme fraiche is really up to you, more makes it taste richer and creamier. Try to use amounts so that your creme fraiche won't run out prematurely as you stack.

Repeat stacking pasta sheets, sauce and creme fraiche. I usually end up with 3 or 4 pasta layers in the end. You last layer should have sauce or creme fraiche on top.

Grate the parmesan, either with a box grater with the coarse side or in a food processor until it's in fine chunks. Cover the top evenly.

Put into a 180°C pre-heated oven for 45 minutes, occasionally looking in to see if the top has already browned. Your lasagna is cooked if you poke in with a fork or knife and feel no resistance from the pasta sheets.

If the top hasn't browned by the time the pasta has cooked use the broiler to give it some color. Stay there watching it because the broiler makes it brown very quickly after it's up to temperature and a minute longer can be the difference between browned and charred.

Let rest outside the oven for a few minutes and you can dig in. Leftovers taste better the next day so this is good for meal prep. Re-heat portions in the microwave or in a pan on your stove.



For the next time you make it:

Observe what you'd like to change for the next time, experiment with the amounts of onion, garlic, creme fraiche, cheese, spices. Those are all great variables to adjust its flavor. You might like more spices or less creme fraiche in yours than I do. I wrote down very conservative amounts. Sometimes we go really over board with cheese and creme fraiche because we feel like it. I usually add more onion and garlic than in the recipe but not everyone might like that. We don't always add carrot. This is really an almost failsafe recipe you can make your own by experimenting.