Oven Baked Lasagna

For the meat sauce, peel onion and garlic and chop finely. Rinse celery, remove as many strings as possible and cut into small pieces. Rinse tomatoes, blanch, peel, cut in half, remove seeds and cut into pieces. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and brown meat over high heat. Reduce heat and add onion and garlic. Pour in tomato paste and add fennel and bay leaf. Deglaze with red wine and vegetable stock. Simmer for half an hour.

For the bechamel, melt butter in a pot. Whisk in flour. Mix milk and cream together and gradually pour into mixture while stiring. Bring to a boil. Cook for approximately 1 minute and the remove from heat. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Preheat oven to 200°C (approximately 400°F).

Season meat sauce with salt and pepper and stir in thyme leaves.

Grease a baking dish measuring about 30x15 cm (approximately 12x6 inches) with butter. Pour in a little of the meat sauce, followed by bechamel sauce and cover with lasagna noodles. Continue this pattern until bakng dish is almost full. Finish with a layer of lasagna noodles covered with bechamel sauce and grated Parmesan. Cover with slivers of butter and bake until golden brown in preheated oven, or about 30-40 minutes.