Lasagna with Cheese Sauce

This may be normal for lasagna but I'm not thrilled about the time it takes to make this thing.  3 hours to get it in the oven but I did identify an issue in the way the recipe was given and corrected it here.

Meat sauce: Takes about two hours
2 diced carrots
1 diced celery stalk
1 diced yellow onion
1 package of pancetta (it's like a cross between bacon and ham)
2lbs ground beef
1/2 cup of red wine
2tbsp of tomato paste
Either: two medium tomatoes, diced; or one 540mL can of tomatoes, drained.
1 cup of beef stock
1 cup of vegetable stock

Melt butter in the pan; add first four ingredients (you should hear the vegetables sizzle as you don't want them to boil) and sauté these for about 15 minutes. Add the ground beef, breaking it down as you cook it through.  Add the red wine and ensure you don't leave anything stuck to the bottom of the pan. Once you've stirred it through for a minute or two, add the tomato paste and tomatoes; then add the beef stock and vegetable stock (if you have real stock that would be ideal but packaged works for no waste, also the re-sealable containers from Campbell's). 

Once you've added all of your ingredients, it's supposed to simmer, covered, for around an hour and a half.   You should do the noodles now.

Interesting idea from this one and I was peeved that it didn't tell me to do this while the meat was cooking.  Add 3-5 noodles to boiling water; then get very cold water in another large dish.  Once the noodles are al dente (not mush) remove them from the pot straight into the cold water.  This apparently keeps them from becoming mush in the oven.  This process takes about 30 minutes or so.  After the noodles are completely cooled, take them out of the cool water and place them on a non-linty kitchen towel to drain excess water.  They don't dry out, but excessive touching can make them sticky.

White Cheese Sauce - about 12 minutes if you only have to do it once...
Butter
Flour
Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese
Ricotta
*salt and pepper or whatever else you feel to taste

With about a half hour left, grease your lasagna dish and get ready for the white sauce.  You need two pots for this and the warming of the milk takes longer than making the roux.  Put three cups of whole milk in one pot and warm it.  Don't bring it to a boil; it's finished when there are little bubbles on the side - about 8-10 minutes. With only a few minutes remaining (or you can wait until it's done) melt about 6 tablespoons of butter in the other pot and then add about 6 tablespoons of flour.  You'll make something that looks like a crumbly dough; add more flour if yours doesn't look like this. 

The milk is slowly added to the roux as you whisk it.  You should have something that is a bit thicker than cake mix.  I found out tonight that my milk hadn't been warm enough (or I didn't make enough roux) and it was totally runny.  I made more roux and put the milk on again and it was perfect.  Taste this and see if you like it.  Maybe I think it's bland and it's quite tasty (but it's not supposed to be).  I add shredded parmegiano-reggiano cheese and also a couple tablespoons of ricotta.  If your meat sauce is as salty as mine (with no salt added) you probably don't need to add anything else to this but here's the time to make that decision.

Layering: noodles, white sauce, meat (and I sprinkle some mozzarella on top of this also) repeat; ending with noodles, white sauce and mozza on the top.  In a 9x13 pan, I had three layers of meat sauce, so four layers of noodles.  It's supposed to hold together better if you use less meat at a time.  Place in oven at 375 for 45 minutes in a glass baking dish and probably a half hour at 350 in a tin one.

Geoff doesn't like the white sauce (bland or cheesy). I forgot.  Everyone else liked it and I'm calling it a success since the kids asked to take it for lunch tomorrow.