10 romano peppers
2 onions
2 sticks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
800g tinned chopped tomatoes
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
65g capers
50g butter
50g flour
800ml whole milk
100g parmigiano reggiano
125g mozzarella
15 dried lasagne sheets
salt and olive oil
Heat your grill to high. Arrange your peppers on a baking tray, and get them under the grill for 10 minutes, turning them occasionally so that they char evenly. You want the skins to get nice and black. Cover the tray with a tea towel, and set them to one side to cool.
Peel and finely dice your onion. Finely chop your celery too.
Get a saucepan set over a medium heat, and add a generous glug of olive oil. Get your onion and celery in the pan, and cook these for about 20 minutes, or until they are soft. Grate your garlic into the pan, and add this too. Cook it out for 2 minutes.
When your peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off their skins and discard them. Discard any seeds, then roughly chop the flesh.
Get the peppers into the veg pan, then tip in your chopped tomatoes, red wine vinegar and caster sugar. Simmer this mixture on a low heat for 25 minutes.
Heat your oven to 190°C.
Whilst your sauce simmers, make the white sauce. Melt your butter in a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat. Once foaming, add your flour and mix to a paste. Cook for 2 mins.
Gradually pour in your milk in small increments, beating all the while to ensure that you have a smooth mixture before adding more milk. Once all the milk is added, bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to thicken. Grate in 85g of your parmesan, then tear in your mozzarella ball, and whisk to combine. Season to taste with salt.
Season up your red sauce with salt and pepper, to taste. Spoon a little of your red sauce into the base of a 30 x 20cm baking dish. Arrange your lasagna sheets neatly on top, snapping sheets where necessary to plug the gaps. Pour over ⅕ of your remaining sauce followed by ⅕ of your remaining sauce, then more lasagna sheets. Continue like this until you are out of all your mixtures.
Mix the top layer so that the ragù and white sauce combine, pushing it all the way to the edges so the lasagna sheets are totally covered. Sprinkle the surface with your remaining parmesan, then cover it with foil. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for 30 minutes more.
Let your lasagne stand for 5 minutes before slicing it up and serving.