This can, and should be done the day or two before. You could also do it a week or two (or more) before and freeze it until you need.

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium high heat and add half the ground meat. Don't worry too much about breaking it all up, I prefer to leave it alone to get some good colour on it. It doesn't need to be cooked all the way through. 

When it has some nice colour on it, but still some pink in the middle, set aside. Repeat with the other half. You can do the meat in two batches one after the other or get two pans going at the same time.

Heat the other 1 tbsp of olive oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan/casserole dish over medium heat and fry the pancetta for 10 minutes until nicely browned. Lift out with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat behind.

Add the onion, celery, carrot mixture and a good pinch of salt and pepper and gently fry until soft, about 10 mins. Lower heat if it starts to brown and add more oil if it dries out too much.

After 5 minutes add the garlic and herbs and continue cooking.

Add the ground meat and pancetta and mix the tomato paste through.

Cook the tomato paste off for 5 minutes, breaking up the meat really well with a wooden spoon.

Add the wine and let it cook off, reducing for 8 - 10 mins. The meat should be completely broken up at this stage.

Add the stock and milk and bring to a simmer.

Taste the liquid for seasoning and add a good pinch of salt and pepper if it needs.

Lower the heat right down and cook uncovered for 3 - 4 hours. It should barely be bubbling. Stir it occasionally.

It's ready when the liquid has mostly reduced and it tastes rich and delicious!

Add the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. It's better on the slightly salty side as it's going with a lot of layers of pasta.

Leave it to cool to room temp then cover and place in the fridge to use when you are ready.

Give it a light reheat  on the stove top before you use it to loosen it up and make it easier to spread. You should end up with about 6 cups of bolognese.

As I mention in the notes above, please feel free to buy fresh lasagne sheets! Making the pasta adds a lot of work but it's pretty satisfying!

If you aren't familiar with making pasta dough then head over to my recipe for easy homemade pasta dough for instructions keeping in mind the quantity is different here.

Once you have made the dough and it is rested and ready to use, divide it into 6 pieces, keeping the others tightly wrapped. It's going to depend on the size of the pan you are using so this is what worked for my 35 x 24cm pan.

Roll out the sheets as wide as you can on your roller which will more than likely be 15cm. I rolled to setting 6 on my macarto roller. Cut each sheet in half width ways. You should get two 15 x 26cm (ish) sheets out of each ball of dough.

All up you'll have 12 of these sheets. You won't actually need them all but I wanted to have extra on hand incase they tore or something went wrong!

As you go layer them up on a tray with baking paper in between.

Once you have all the dough rolled out blanch them in well salted boiling water for 30 seconds. I did two at a time and ran them both under cold water straight away. Don't stress if they ball up in the water they unfold really easily. Once you have rinsed them pat them dry and start to re-layer them between baking paper.

I'm not going to lie, this part is quite time consuming, a lot of people say they don't blanch the sheets first but I felt like it gave them so much more strength when assembling so I think it was worth it.

Over medium - high heat, melt the remaining butter in a medium saucepan then add the flour and whisk into a paste for a minute to cook the flour off. You want to cook it so it starts to smell nutty.

Turn the heat down and add the milk gradually whisking vigorously to incorporate, making sure you are getting the flour paste from the bottom and sides of the pan.

Continue to cook over a medium heat, whisking until it thickens and can coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Add 100g of parmesan in a few separate lots, whisking in between each addition until smooth.

Add the salt and pepper and set aside. I keep a whisk in the pan and give it a stir every so often to prevent a skin forming. This should be the final step before assembling so you should be all ready to go.

Here is the fun part where all your hard work will pay off! I use a 35 x 24cm dish. On the bench you have your bolognese loosened but at room temp, your blanched pasta sheets all layered up between baking paper (or store bought ones ready to go), your bechamel in the pot and the crumbled or grated parmesan. 100g of the parm is going to go between the layers and 100g will go on top.

Please refer to all my assembly shots above.

Your oven should be preheated to 190 degrees (375f)

Lightly grease your lasagne pan with butter.

Spread 1 heaped cup of bolognese into an even layer on the bottom of the pan. Top with ½ cup of the bechamel (I did slightly more than half a cup of bechamel in each layer)

Layer two sheets of pasta side by side over top to create one layer of pasta, which will come up the edges if you are using the same size dish as me. They should slightly overlap in the middle.

Spread another heaped cup of bolognese on top of the pasta followed by a ½ cup bechamel. Dust with some of the grated parmesan (ration it out for the layers).

Keep alternating pasta, ragu, bechamel and parm. You should end up with five layers of pasta. The first two layers of pasta I overlapped up the sides, the middle two I trimmed down to just fit within the dish then the top one I overlapped up the sides again. Do whatever you like depending how thick you want the crispy bits up the side.

When you are up to the third layer of pasta grate the zest of a lemon on top of the ragu before adding the bechamel. Don't skip this I promise it adds such a lovely flavour note.

After the 5th layer of pasta you will do a final layer of ragu (this should finish it off) then 1 cup of bechamel and the additional 100g of grated or crumbled parmesan evenly dusted over the top.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 mins. Remove the foil and bake for another 30 mins or until cooked through, the crispy edges have browned and the top is bubbly and golden.

Let the lasagne firm up for 15 - 20 mins before cutting and serving. With an extra dusting of parmesan!

Enjoy!