Eritrean Homemade Lasagna Recipe (or Homemade Pasta Sauce recipe)

I'm not sure if it was because we were colonized by Italy back in the 19th century but lasagna is a common dish in the Eritrean household. So I would like to share my personal homemade lasagna recipe! Enjoy :)

Ingredients for  Pasta Sauce:
2 Onions Diced
2 Tomatos diced
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
2 Tbs of Berbere(Eritrean spice, you can use Paprika or Cayenne)
2 Tbs of minced Garlic
2 Jalepenos diced
1 can of whole tomatoes
1 tsp of salt
1 bottle of tomato sauce(I use Prego)
1/4 tsp of pepper
1 package of ground beef


Ingredients for Lasagna:
1 Box of Lasagna
1 cup of milk
1 egg
A bowl of shredded cheese

1) Put the diced onions in a pot and put the heat on medium

2) Add the tomatoes and stir so vegetables cook but DON'T burn

This is berbere it makes the sauce spicy

3) Add the Vegetable oil, the berbere and the salt and continue to stir(fyi, this is how you start a majority of Eritrean dishes as you will see in my later posts)

4) In a blender add in one Jalapeno diced and 1 Tbs of garlic with the canned Tomato. Blend until liquefied

5) Add the contents of the blender into the sauce and continue to stir

6) Add the tomato sauce to the pot and stir for 10-15mins

7) In a separate pan, cook the ground beef and add the pepper, 1/2 tbs of garlic and whatever spices you would like to add to the meat to give it flavor

8) Once the meat is done add it to the sauce with the remaining diced jalenpenos and garlic. Continuously stir the pot on a setting between low and medium heat for 30mins.  

Once the sauce is tasting great and done, you can get on to making the Lasagna.

1) Boil water with a tsp of vegetable oil and a tsp of Salt. Add the Lasagna and leave on til it is cooked

 

2) Once the lasagna is done, mix the egg and milk together in one bowl and prepare your setup (Sauce, Cheese, Milk/egg mixture, and lasagna)

3) Spread sauce on the bottom of the pan (so later it doesn't stick)

4) Layer the lasagna over the Sauce

5) Add sauce, then add milk and egg mixture and spread evenly

6) Add cheese and spread evenly

7) Continue adding layers until the pan is full

8) Put the pan in the oven and bake on 350 for 30-45mins

9) When it looks like this, take it out of the oven and let it cool for 20mins.

 :)