They are incredibly versatile, and of course do not have to be meat based. Use whatever seasonal vegetables you wish, but just remember to have something moist and juicy inside if you do not have a white sauce. This could be a tomato sauce, like the aubergine, tomato and basil lasagne below, or it could be mashed butternut squash. Experiment with different cheeses: ricotta, mozzarella, gruyere, parmesan, blue cheese (not too much) or even feta or goats' cheese. You get different textures and flavours with each. Mozzarella and gruyere are wonderful in lasagne as they have great melting texture.

MAKING PASTA

Fresh pasta is incredibly easy to make, but it helps a lot if you have a pasta machine for quick rolling. These are available in all good kitchen shops such as Kitchen Complements on Chatham Street and Fallon & Bryne in Dublin and the Ballymaloe shop.

Sieve 400g flour into a bowl; add a good pinch of salt and mix. In a separate bowl whisk three large eggs. Add most . . . but not all . . . of the beaten egg to the flour, and mix until it comes together to form a firm dough. You may need to add more egg . . . sometimes if the eggs are quite small you may even need a fourth egg. Basically, you want the dough to be very firm. If it is sticky it will be very hard to roll and the texture will be heavy and 'gungy'.

Once the dough has come together, knead it for a few minutes, then cover it with an upturned bowl, or a plastic bag, and allow it to rest for at least 20 minutes (it can sit in the fridge overnight if you like).

Roll the pasta (by hand if you wish) or in a pasta machine . . . if it is slightly too wet you will need to add a little flour when rolling to stop it sticking. The pasta should be just 1-2mm thick . . . you should be just about able to read the headline of a newspaper through the pasta. Cut the pasta into lasagne-sized sheets and treat as you would dry pasta. These will need to be boiled for two minutes before assembling in a lasagne. If these are sitting around for any length of time you will need to lay them on sheets of greaseproof paper to stop them sticking.

CLASSIC LASAGNE WITH ROAST GARLIC BREAD
Serves 4-6

This recipe is from my new book, Rachel's Food for Living, published by Collins. The two sauces in this recipe, the bolognese sauce and the bechamel sauce (white sauce), are two of the most versatile basic sauces used in cooking. The bolognese sauce can, of course be served with pasta on its own; the bechamel sauce forms the basis of many dishes including cauliflower cheese and macaroni cheese.

For the bolognese sauce:

1 small onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
15g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed or grated
250g minced beef or 125g minced beef and 125g minced pork
75ml white wine
75ml beef, chicken or vegetable stock
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
Salt, freshly ground black pepper and sugar
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

For the bechamel sauce:

50g butter
50g flour
600ml milk
75g grated cheese such as parmesan or a mix of parmesan and gruyere
12 lasagne sheets (approximately 200g / 7oz depending on size of dish)

For the roast garlic bread:

175g butter
6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed or grated
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 baguette

Preheat the oven to 1800C, gas mark 4.

First make the bolognese sauce. Put the onion, carrot and celery in a food processor and whizz until finely chopped.

Put the butter and olive oil in a saucepan on a medium heat and when the butter melts, add the onion, carrot and celery and stir over a medium heat for three-four minutes until the vegetables are cooked and light golden.

Turn up the heat, add the garlic and beef and stir, breaking up the lumps of mince until it changes colour. Then add the wine, stock and tomatoes (and all their juice) and season with salt, pepper and a good pinch of sugar. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat to low, simmering with the lid off for about 20 minutes until the bolognese sauce is quite thick. Finally, add the chopped basil and parsley and season to taste.

Next make the bechamel sauce. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan, add the flour and cook for one-two minutes on a medium heat, stirring so the flour does not burn. Take it off the heat for a moment while you gradually add the milk, whisking all the time. Put the pan back on the heat and whisk until the milk thickens. Season to taste and set aside.

To assemble the lasagne, spoon a little bolognese sauce (about four tablespoons), to cover the base of a gratin dish measuring approximately 25cm square, and then cover with a layer of bechamel sauce and sprinkle with cheese. Place sheets of lasagne in a single layer to cover the cheese, then top with bolognese sauce and continue until you almost get to the top of the gratin dish. Don't fill it too much, or it will bubble over in the oven.

Finish with a layer of pasta, then bechamel and finally the cheese.

When you are ready to eat, put in the over for about 30-40 minutes until the pasta is cooked and the top is golden and bubbling around the edges.

Meanwhile, prepare the garlic bread. In a small saucepan, melt the butter, then add the garlic and chopped parsley. Cut along the baguette horizontally (or into smaller slices) and generously brush the melted garlic butter over the cut sides.

Put on a baking tray and place in the oven for 15 minutes or until toasted and golden brown.

Serve the lasagne with the garlic bread and a green salad.

Rachel's handy hints: By putting the lasagne sheets in a dish and covering with boiling water for two-three minutes before assembling, the pasta is even more moist when it's cooked.

AUTUMN LASAGNE WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH
Serves 4
1 large or 2 small onions, finely sliced
4 tbsp olive oil for frying
1kg butternut squash (weighed whole, unpeeled) peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks, about 1-2cm
A pinch of ground cinnamon
A pinch of ground nutmeg
200ml milk
225g spinach, cooked (if using large spinach leaves, weigh after the stalks have been removed)
8-10 lasagne sheets
2 balls of mozzarella, 125g each

Preheat the oven to 1800C, gas mark 4.

Cook the onion in the olive oil until soft, add the butternut squash, cinnamon and the nutmeg, cover and cook gently until tender, about five minutes. Add the milk and mash roughly and season to taste with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook the lasagne sheets in boiling water for three minutes and drain.

Place two-three sheets of lasagne in a medium baking dish, to cover the base, add half the butternut squash and spinach. Add another layer of lasagne and the rest of the butternut squash and spinach. Season and follow with a final layer of lasagne. Rip the mozzarella into pieces and scatter it over the final sheet.

Put in the preheated oven and cook for Super supper: lasagne with garlic bread 20 minutes, or until it is golden and bubbling. Place under a hot grill briefly to brown the top if necessary.

NIGEL SLATER'S MUSHROOM AND BASIL PESTO LASAGNE

As with any dish of this kind, quantities are a bit vague, and really a function of how big your dish is or how big your appetite. It doesn't matter if you've got a bit less pesto, or if you end up with extra layers of pasta to fit everything in . . . cooking time in the oven is really forgiving (anything from 30 to 55 minutes) as long as the individual components are cooked properly to begin with. Just make sure it's bubbling and brown and it will be great, and of course you could always prepare it in advance and cook it from cold for longer.

Make sure you do not wash your mushrooms, otherwise they will soak up lots of water, wipe them clean if they are dirty.

For the bechamel:

1 litre whole milk
3 heaped tablespoons flour
45g butter

For the pesto: (You can use 4 tbsp of ready-made pesto instead)

60g pine nuts
2 big bunches basil, giving about 4 handfuls of leaves
4 tablespoons grated parmesan
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled

For the sauteed mushrooms:

A thick slice of butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
500g mushrooms, sliced
1 handful chopped parsley
10g dried porcini mushrooms
2 tablespoons grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 1800C, gas mark 4.

Saute the onions and garlic in the butter over a medium heat for around 20 minutes until soft. Meanwhile cover the porcini in around 100ml of boiling water.

After the onions have softened, add the mushrooms, porcini with their cooking water, parsley and a couple of tablespoons grated parmesan. Cook with the lid half on, allowing all the moisture to escape, for around 20 minutes, until the mushrooms are coloured and soft. During this saute time, you can make the pesto by putting all the ingredients in a food processor, and processing it until it forms a paste. Don't worry too much about the consistency (too dry, too wet), as it will blend into the bechamel during cooking.

Prepare the bechamel by melting the butter in a saucepan, and then cooking in the flour as a roux for a few minutes.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the milk gradually until it has all been incorporated. Return to the heat and cook, stirring briskly, for 10 to 15 minutes until glossy and thickened.

Next, assemble the lasagne: use an ovenproof dish around 20-25cm. Ladle in a bit of the bechamel to cover the bottom, and then put a layer of lasagne sheets.

Follow this with half the mushroom mixture (if it is still very liquidy, then lift out just the mushrooms with a slotted spoon). Follow with a quarter of the bechamel. Now a layer of pasta, the rest of the mushrooms, another quarter of the bechamel, and another layer of pasta.

Spread the pesto over this final pasta layer, and top with the rest of the bechamel. Give a good grating of parmesan over the top, and bake for around 30-40 minutes until it is bubbling and golden on top.