Lasagne alla bolognese with pareve béchamel, without cheese

Method

1. Cut the onion, carrot and celery into 3 mm dice. Crush the peeled tomatoes by hand in a bowl with their juice. Heat 30 g oil in a 24 cm casserole over a medium-low heat and soften the vegetables for 10 minutes, stirring, until tender, translucent and glossy with oil, with just a hint of colour. Lower the heat if the edges brown.
2. Increase to medium-high, add the beef and break it up with a spoon. As soon as it sizzles, add 2 g salt. Cook for 10–12 minutes, stirring occasionally: first its water evaporates, then the meat sizzles and browns, leaving browned bits on the bottom. Aim for browned meat juices, not burnt onion. Add the tomato purée and stir for 2 minutes until brick-red. Pour in the wine, scrape up the browned bits and reduce for 3 minutes, until the smell of alcohol disappears.
3. Add the crushed tomatoes, 150 g water, 5 g salt and half the pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover with a gap and cook over a very low heat for 1 hour 45 minutes. Stir every 20 minutes, adding the 100 g water in small amounts if the bottom starts to catch. After 1 hour 45 minutes, loosen the ragù with 100 g hot water, and up to 50 g more if needed. For dried lasagne sheets, it should flow slowly from a spoon like pasta sauce, looser than a ragù for tagliatelle, as the sheets will absorb 250 g liquid. Taste and add 1 g salt if needed; the ragù should be well seasoned, as pasta and béchamel soften its flavour.
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional. During the ragù's final 20 minutes, dissolve the third of a stock cube in 150 g boiling water in a bowl, add the soya drink and warm together for 2 minutes in the microwave or in a saucepan, without boiling. In a saucepan, heat 30 g oil over a medium-low heat, add the flour and whisk for 2 minutes, until the roux foams without browning and no longer smells of raw flour.
5. Add the warm liquid to the roux in three stages, whisking out all lumps between additions. Simmer gently for 8–10 minutes, stirring along the bottom, until the béchamel loses its floury and soya flavours and becomes silky. Add 3 g salt, the nutmeg and remaining pepper. It should coat the whisk but still pour in a broad ribbon, deliberately fluid. If too thick, stir in 30–50 g hot water. Assemble immediately while the béchamel is hot and flowing.
6. Lightly oil a dish about 20 × 25 cm and 6 cm deep with some of the reserved 5 g oil. Spread about 50 g béchamel over the base. Make four layers, each with pasta sheets without thick overlaps and a quarter of the ragù, about 180 g. Drizzle about 80 g béchamel over each of the first three layers. Finish the fourth with all the remaining béchamel, about 200 g, covering every corner of pasta so none stays dry.
7. Drizzle the rest of the reserved 5 g oil over the top. Cover with foil without letting it touch the sauce and bake in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes, then uncover and bake for another 15–20 minutes. The edges should bubble and a knife pass through the layers without resistance. If the pasta is still firm, cover and cook for 5 minutes more. Finish under the grill for 3–4 minutes, watching constantly: soya béchamel colours quickly, so stop at the first golden-brown patches.
8. Take out and rest on a wire rack for 15 minutes before cutting, so the layers settle while staying moist. Serve hot with a pareve vegetable starter.