Mary Berry Lasagne / Tried and Tested

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Do you feel like making lasagne is always a hassle? Traditional recipes can easily take hours when cooked from scratch. That's why we were excited when we found Mary Berry's Express Lasagne on BBC Food, which are claiming to be super quick and great for a week-day dinner.

For all Mary Berry cookbooks fans, you can also find this recipe in Mary Berry's Absolute Favourites.   

The recipe looked very promising, featuring some great flavours, including sausage meat, spinach, chestnut mushrooms, passata, cheddar cheese, and fresh herbs. The individual steps seemed simple enough, and it didn't ask for bechamel sauce which I thought makes my life easier and shortens the cooking time.

Do we think it's a good choice for an express week-day meal? Did we like it? Continue reading to find out.

What happened when we tried it?

• We were able to find suitable substitutes for some of the recipe ingredients.   
• The number of lasagne sheets in the recipe isn't enough to make six servings and adequately fill the recommended dish. 
• Pre-soaking lasagne sheets in hot water make them unusable. We had to discard two portions of lasagne sheets after following the recipe advice.
• It was easy to turn the recipe into a meat-free meal with just one simple adjustment.
• This lasagne is faster than most traditional recipes.

Easy ingredients' substitutions

Ingredients	Substitutes
Sausage Meat (450g)	Sausages (approx 7 links - 466.6g)
Cheddar Cheese	Double Gloucester, Edam, Gouda, Mozzarella
Chestnut Mushrooms	Button Mushrooms, Portobello Mushrooms
Baby Spinach (100g)	Frozen Spinach (150g)
Passata	Blended Tin Tomatoes
Sun-dried Tomato Paste (2 tbsp)	Tomato Puree (2 tbsp) with or without a Pinch of Granulated Garlic and Black Pepper
Muscovado Sugar	Any Sugar
Fresh Thyme/Fresh Sage (1 tbsp)	Dried herbs (1 tsp)

Sausage Meat

Buying good quality sausage meat can be more expensive than buying good quality sausages. That's why I prefer to save some pennies and squeeze some good quality sausages out of their casings.

Cheddar Cheese

Cheddar cheese is the most favoured cheese in the UK. It's available in every grocery store, big or small, and it accounts for 50% of sales of all cheese made in Britain. 

Yet abroad, it might be a different story. For example, I know that finding good quality cheddar cheese in Czechia is tricky, and it costs more than double what I would pay in the UK. 

Whether you are in the UK or anywhere else looking for a good Cheddar substitute for this recipe, consider cheese that melts easily. Your best choice is Double Gloucester, Edam, Gouda or Mozzarella. 

Chestnut Mushrooms

Chestnut mushrooms are easy to substitute with white button mushrooms or portobello mushrooms. Surprisingly they are all the same type of mushroom called Agaricus bisporus. The main difference between them is their colour and how mature they are.

Chestnut and button mushrooms are a young fruit of the Agaricus bisporus, while Portobello mushrooms are a more mature version. 

Baby Spinach

Fresh baby spinach leaves can be replaced with frozen spinach leaves.

Passata

Passata is made from sieved tomatoes. It has a smooth sauce-like consistency. If you blend tinned tomatoes, you will achieve a similar sauce-like product. 

Sun-dried Tomato Paste

Sun-dried tomato paste isn't available in every supermarket. Looking online, I found it in Waitrose and Ocado. The main components of this paste are sun-dried tomatoes, oil, vinegar, garlic, sugar and black pepper. 

Muscovado sugar

Replace muscovado sugar with any brown or regular white sugar. The sugar in the recipe nicely balances the slightly tangy taste of tomatoes. 

I heard from my Italian friends that tomato sauce shouldn't need any sugar. Still, in my opinion, the sauce lacks something without it.

Fresh Thyme/Fresh Sage

Mary Berry's recipe asks for fresh thyme and sage. It's easy to replace them with their dried versions.

I recently found frozen herbs in my Tesco supermarket. They didn't have sage, but I was able to buy frozen thyme leaves. It is another excellent replacement for fresh thyme (1:1).  

If you don't have the dried or frozen thyme and sage, look for substitutes in your spice and herb cupboard. A great alternative to sage is thyme, and thyme can be replaced with oregano or marjoram. 

Equipment

The recipe recommends a 'shallow 2¼ litre/4 pint ovenproof dish measuring about 30x20cm/12x8in and 6cm/2½in deep'.

Typically, Mary Berry only provides the volume of the recommended dish. I find it much easier to pick a suitable dish based on the measurements rather than volumes, so I'm pleased to see that this time the recipe includes them too.

The main equipment overview:

• ovenproof dish about 30x20cm (to hold assembled lasagne dish)
• large non-stick frying pan (to cook sausage/spinach filling)
• large bow (to mix tomato sauce)

The other tools required are common items like utensils, grater, knives and a chopping board. 

Yield/Portions

This recipe is supposed to make six servings. However, I find the number inflated. 

The meal containing 6 lasagne sheets (enough to make only 2 layers of pasta) is too small to sufficiently fill the recommended dish, and provide six main course portions.

In my opinion, Mary Berry's Express lasagne with only 6 dried sheets makes 4 servings at best!

Adjusting Mary Berry Lasagne Recipe

Mary Berry's recipe makes only a two-layered lasagne. I like to make lasagne from at least 3 layers of pasta. Not only it looks better, but it makes the portions bigger, exactly what this recipe needs.

The size of lasagne sheets might vary from one brand to another, yet, the dried lasagne I found in the shops had all similar dimensions and measured around 9 x 17 cm (only fresh lasagne sheets were available in bigger sizes).

Time and recipe difficulty

This recipe doesn't need advanced cooking skills, but it requires chopping, frying, mixing, assembling and cooking the dish in the oven. If you are taking it one task at a time, it can take a while. My estimate is 85 - 90 minutes.

On the other hand, it is possible to make the meal in just under an hour if you are well prepared and multitask. I managed to make the recipe in 55 minutes from start to finish.

Step by step method

Make Pork and Spinach Filling

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Prepare Tomato Sauce

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Assemble Lasagne

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Bake Lasagne

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What can go wrong?

It was the lasagne sheets that gave me a hard time. And as they are a necessary component in this recipe, it's crucial to get them right. 

Sheets stuck together when pre-soaked in hot water

The recipe clearly instructs to 'soak the lasagne sheets in recently boiled water to soften them’. 

I have to disagree with this step. I tried twice, with different brands of dried lasagne, and both times the sheets got glued to each other. When I wanted to separate them, they fell into pieces.

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This step can work only if the lasagne sheets barely touch each other while soaking. You can achieve this if you pre-soak a maximum of 2 - 3 sheets in a large wide pan or skillet at a time, but this process is messy and time-consuming.

Sheets stay hard in some places after baking

Without pre-soaking dried lasagne sheets, they can stay hard in some places after baking. It's because they didn't cook in enough liquid or they didn't have enough time to soften.

• Fresh lasagne sheets are easy to use and cook nicely, but they cost more per weight, and you will get fewer sheets in the packaging.

• Resting lasagne before cooking can help to soften dried pasta, but the whole preparation takes much longer.

• My go-to choice is to buy Barilla lasagne sheets. These dried lasagne sheets are a more cost-effective option, and they save time too.

I was never very keen on making lasagne until I discovered BARILLA. I swear by this brand! It was the ultimate game-changer for me.

Nutritional value

Ingredients like sausage meat, cheddar cheese, and full-fat creme fraiche are high in calories and significantly affect the meal's calorie count.

The number of calories in each serving also depends on the size of the individual portions. For example, the original recipe divided into 6 portions provides 527 kcal in one serving. Unfortunately, these portions are not big enought for main meal. The same lasagne divided into 4 portions accounts for 790 kcal per serving!

My revised version of the recipe that you can find in the recipe card at the end of the post makes 5 - 6 servings. That sets us somewhere between 554 - 692 kcal per portion.

How to turn Mary Berry's Lasagne into a free-from meal

The main allergens in the recipe are gluten and dairy. To avoid them, pay attention to the following ingredients: 

Ingredients Containing Gluten	Gluten-free Substitutions
Lasagne Sheets (wheat)	Gluten-free lasagne
Sausage Meat (wheat)	Gluten-free Sausage meat or Sausages without Flour
Plain Flour (wheat) - only in the original recipe	Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour

Ingredients Containing Dairy	Lacto-free Substitutions
Butter (milk) - only in the original recipe	Oil
Cheddar Cheese (milk)	Arla Lacto-free Mature Cheddar Cheese, Applewood Vegan Smoky Cheese Alternative
Creme Fraiche (milk)	Oatly Creamy Oat Single Cream

Other allergens (eggs, sulphites, metabisulphites):

• Lasagne Sheets (eggs)
• Sausage meat (sulphites, metabisulphites)

I recommend only products from tried and tested brands we know. Please, always check your ingredients for potential allergens, as their composition might be different.

How to make Mary Berry's Sausage Lasagne meat-free/vegetarian

It's easy to make this recipe meat-free with just one adjustment - replace sausage meat with a meat-free alternative. I like Quorn mince or Tesco Plant Chef Meat-free Mince; both work well with the other ingredients.

Additionally, you can skip the meat or its meat-free substitute and keep only mushrooms and spinach.

Use more spinach and mushrooms, though. You need to increase the volume of the ingredients to make up for the missing 450 g of meat.

What to serve with Lasagne

There is no need to serve any side dishes with this meal as it contains carbs, proteins and vegetables. However, suppose you wish to make the meal more colourful and fun on the plate or bulk up the portions.

In that case, we can recommend serving lasagne with:

• blanched vegetables
• roasted veggies
• leaf salad 

Blanched broccoli or roasted butternut squash is a good choice. Or you can try my personal favourite - Roasted Beetroot in Foil. 

A salad is another great and healthy side dish to serve with lasagne. You can get inspired by our Mango and Green Leave Salad with a recipe for our most loved honey-mustard dressing.

How to Store and Reheat Lasagne

Storing

Fridge - To store leftover lasagne in the refrigerator, use an air-tight container or cover the meal with a cling film to prevent edges from drying and absorbing smells from other food.

Freezer - I have always had mixed feelings about freezing most of the cooked leftovers. Some food freezes better than others, but there are almost always changes, especially in the texture of the defrosted meal.

I personally don't recommend freezing cooked lasagne. If you decide to freeze them anyway, keep the portions in an air-tight container or zip bag to avoid contamination.    

Reheating

Microwave - Using a microwave is simple and convenient. It is also the fastest option. It's better to divide the portion into smaller sections (cut in half or into quarters) for even heat distribution. Leaving a gap in between individual pieces is helpful. 

I cover the meal with a microwave plate cover to avoid splatters, set my microwave on full power and reheat the meal for 2.5 minutes. You will need to experiment with time as every microwave is different. 

Oven - Reheating lasagne in the oven is possible, but not the fastest, and there is a chance that the meal will dry out. Add a few splashes of water to the bottom of the reheating dish and cover it with a lid or aluminium foil to protect the meal from over-drying. 

Set the oven temperature to 180C. Make sure the meat is hot all the way through. 

The verdict on Mary Berry's Express Lasagne Recipe

My family loves the taste of the meal. The individual ingredients pair together well. We particularly like the taste of the sausage meat filling with spinach, mushrooms and creme fraiche. It's a great combination of flavours that sets it apart from other lasagne recipes.

This Mary Berry's Lasagne proves itself to be fairly flexible. It provides a solid foundation that is easily adjustable depending on the goal (low kcal, low fat, meat-free, vegetarian...).

We found out that it is simple to:

• Substitute most of the ingredients, in case you are missing some.
• Tweak the recipe to contain fewer calories.
• Turn it into a meat-free meal.

On the other hand, there are a few things you need to be wary before diving into the preparation and cooking. 

If you follow the soaking advice, you can easily ruin the lasagne sheets. My pre-soaked lasagne sheets were unusable, and I had to bin them. 

Once cooked, the original meal is small, and it doesn't make enough for six servings - check my advice on how to adjust the recipe. 

Lastly, does the recipe provide the perfect solution for a midweek supper? In theory, yes. This meal can be good for a week-day dinner that is ready in less than 60 minutes. However, you need to be organized and multitask to be able to achieve it.

Even though this meal can be made in under one hour, it's possibly a good idea to plan for longer cooking time, around 85 - 90 minutes, especially if it's the first time you are making it. 

All in all, Mary Berry's lasagne is a fantastic and tasty family meal worth making, so don't be put off by incorrect sizing and a little flaw in the directions. If you follow our tips, you will nail this meal to perfection. 

Happy cooking, everyone! 

Recipe Card