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GREED
    50g butter
    50g plain flour
    250ml milk
    500ml hot chicken stock
    50g Parmesan, grated (optional)
    250g Meat Ragu (see here )
    ½ teaspoon red chilli flakes or chilli powder
    125g cannelloni tubes or lasagne sheets
    salt and pepper
    I begin by making the white sauce so the roux that thickens it has time to cook down on the stove and make the sauce smooth and creamy. (I often use stock because it’s cheaper than milk and less likely to overcook in the slow cooker.)
    Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. When it bubbles, add the plain flour and stir well. It will come together into a paste. Lower the heat and cook for about 3–4 minutes. Stir frequently and don’t let it colour too much.
    Add half the milk, whisking constantly. It might look lumpy, but keep whisking and you’ll see the milk vanishing into the roux. Repeat with the rest of the milk, then start adding the stock. Keep whisking until it all comes together and then allow the white sauce to simmer for 8–10 minutes. It will thicken nicely. Add the Parmesan and stir well.
    Prepare the meat ragu by adding the red chilli flakes and seasoning again if needed. If you aren’t using pre-bought cannelloni tubes, but lasagne sheets instead, you’ll need to blanch them in boiling water now in order to be able to roll them. Cook them for 2 minutes, two at a time, and lift them out with tongs. Lay on a clean tea towel until needed.
    Filling the pasta becomes ridiculously good fun with the use of a piping bag. If you have a reusable one, that’s great, or you can use the disposable ones or a good strong freezer bag with the corner cut off diagonally. All the ragu should fit in the bag at once and it’s easier to pipe if the bag is nice and plump. Twist the top tight and you’re ready.
    Simply fill each cannelloni tube until about 5mm remains at each end, placing them into the slow cooker as you go. If you are making your own with the lasagne sheets, fold them round so the join is at the bottom and overlaps to make a seam. Fill and stack the same way as the tubes. Don’t tuck extra cannelloni in at the sides of the crock or they will burn, but you can stack them up to three layers deep.
    Pour the white sauce over the cannelloni, making sure they are evenly coated then cook on low for 3 hours. The sauce will soak into the pasta slightly. Serve with extra Parmesan.

LASAGNE
    No matter what I do, I never have the right dish for a lasagne. It’s like Goldilocks, but with pasta instead of porridge. The dish is too big or too small or too deep or not deep enough. The result being that I rarely make lasagne, which is a real shame because a good lasagne is a truly marvellous thing. I like mine the Northern Irish way with chips on the side, but I’m going to be grown-up here and say serve this with a green salad.
    I usually make this lasagne when I’ve done a big batch of either of the meat ragu recipes in this chapter. Slow cooking them twice makes them melt-in-the-mouth tender and the lasagne very simple to make. If you don’t have any, simply fry 400g beef mince until brown along with an onion. Add ½ teaspoon dried oregano and 400g chopped tomatoes, simmer for 20 minutes and use in place of the ragu here.
    SERVES 4–6 DEPENDING ON YOUR CHOICE OF SIDE DISH
    9 dried or fresh lasagne sheets
    50g butter
    50g plain flour
    500ml milk
    50g Parmesan, grated
    500g Meat or Sausage Ragu (see here or here )
    200g mozzarella, grated
    If you are using dried lasagne sheets, put a large pan of water on to boil on the stove. Boil each sheet for about 60–90 seconds to soften them. Lift out with tongs and place each one in a single layer side by side on a clean tea towel. Trim the corners of six of them into a rounded shape with kitchen scissors when the sheets are cool enough to handle.
    Make the white sauce (béchamel) by melting the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir the plain flour into it to make a roux. Cook it for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly