Lasagna has been one of my favorite foods since childhood. My mom had a rotating menu for when we had the LDS missionaries over to eat: Chinese Sundaes (AKA Hawaiian Haystacks), a creamy chicken casserole, and a classic meat lasagna. Lasagna is definitely a comfort food for me. That’s why this recipe, Spinach and Cheese Lasagna Roll-Ups, is also a new favorite.
These scrumptious little roll-ups make for an easy and versatile meal. The ricotta cheese filling has a neutral taste that pairs well with all sorts of ingredients. You could add sun dried tomatoes, browned Italian sausage, zucchini, roasted butternut squash or broccoli to the filling. You can also play around with the topping sauces: a classic marinara, alfredo sauce, basil pesto, or even a combination of a few of them. Really, the sky’s the limit... and what you have in your pantry.
Recipe: Spinach and Cheese Lasagna Roll-Ups
1- 16 oz. box of lasagna noodles
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 TBS olive oil
8 oz. fresh spinach
15 oz. ricotta
1 egg
½ cup Parmesan cheese
1 TBS dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper
1 jar pasta sauce (tomato, alfredo, pesto- your choice)
Cook lasagna noodles until flexible enough to roll up, just before they are al dente. Using tongs, remove the noodles from the pot and lay on a sheet of parchment or wax paper to cool and dry.
Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute the garlic for 30-60 seconds, until your kitchen is filled with the smell of garlic. Add the spinach to the saute pan. Cook until wilted and completely coated in the garlic oil. Turn of the heat and set this aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, mix the following ingredients together: ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, egg, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, and pepper. Add the cooked spinach and 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese.
Place a heaping ¼ cup of ricotta filling on each lasagna noodle. Use the back of your spoon to spread the cheese out across the whole noodle. Roll the noodle up and place seam side down in a baking dish (if eating right away) or on a baking sheet (if preparing as a freezer meal). Continue until all the filling is used.
If eating right away: cover the lasagna with pasta sauce and top with cheese. Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.
If freezing: cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and place in the freezer. After a few hours, remove the rolls from the freezer and place in freezer Zip Loc bags. On the day of eating, place the frozen rolls directly in a baking dish. Cover the lasagna rolls with pasta sauce and cheese. Bake at 375° for about 30-45 minutes, depending on how many rolls you’re preparing.
Step by Step Picture Directions:
Start out by boiling your lasagna noodles. You’ll want to stir these noodles around a bit, because if the noodles stick together you won’t be able to easily roll up the little bundles of goodness. Drain the noodles when they are just flexible enough to roll. When you’re preparing a freezer meal with pasta, you always want to under cook you pasta. I like to drain the pasta 1-3 minutes less than the box directions, before they become al dente. The pasta will continue to absorb moisture from the rest of the dish as they sit in the freezer.
While you noodles are cooking away, sauté two cloves of garlic in about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the garlic just long enough that the aroma of garlic fills your kitchen. We’re just trying to flavor the olive oil at this step.
Next, toss in about 8 ounces of fresh spinach. It looks like a lot, doesn’t it? It will cook down SO much. I’m always skeptical when I first see how much spinach goes in the pan. But, I can assure you, the spinach will cook down and be the appropriate portion for this dish. Trust.
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Turn off the heat and set the garlic/spinach mixture aside (we want it to cool down a bit), it’s time to mix up the cheese filling. Dump 15 ounces of ricotta cheese (I used part skim), ½ cup of grated Parmesan, 1 tablespoon of dried basil, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1 egg, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir these all together.
Add the cooled spinach and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Doesn’t that look like delightful? This mixture is like the cookie dough of the Italian world for me. I love taking a little swipe from the side of the bowl.
By now, your pasta is probably ready. Take out the noodles with tongs and lay them on parchment or wax paper. This what my mom always does, and so this is how I always do it too. Let the noodles dry for a few minutes. You don’t want to try to spread ricotta filling on wet noodles. The ricotta will just frustratingly slide back and forth.
Scoop about 1/4-1/3 cup of the filling onto a noodle. Use the back of your spoon to spread the filling out. You’ll want one end of noodle to have a little bit of a thicker layer and the other end with a fairly thin layer of filling. I like to put a scoop on every noodle, then spread out the cheese. Seems to be a little faster than alternating back and forth.
Time to roll! Take the end of the noodle with the thicker layer of filling and begin rolling. Place the roll seam side down on a lightly greased baking sheet. (Foil makes cleaning up so much faster! Can I get an amen?!)
If you want to eat these right away, skip the baking sheet and just place them in a baking dish. I spread a little sauce on the bottom of the dish first, then nestle the lasagna rolls down. Cover the tops of the rolls with more sauce and top with the remaining cup of cheese. Bake at 375° for about 25-30 minutes or until the mozzarella cheese begins to golden.
If these babies are going in the freezer for another day, cover the whole baking sheet in plastic wrap and place in the freezer. We want these little bundles to freeze individually, so that we have the option of cooking one at a time or all of them together. I told you this was a versatile meal.
After a few hours, you can package the lasagna rolls in freezer friendly materials. My preference are the Zip Loc gallon size freezer bags. It’s worth it to spend a little more on the name brand. It’s so sad to go through all the trouble of prepping a freezer meal just to find that it has succumb to freezer burn. So sad. Do yourself a favor and use the best packaging.
Don’t forget to label the bag! Add some pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese in and you have a handy freezer meal kit.
On the day you want to eat the lasagna rolls, put a layer of pasta sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Place those little frozen bundles on top of the pasta sauce. A 9” x 9” dish is the right size for 9 lasagna rolls. Cover the tops of the rolls with a generous amount of pasta sauce. Then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. The cooking time will depend on how many rolls you are cooking, but it will take anywhere from 30-45 minutes on 375° to cook this through and golden the mozzarella cheese.
How 'bout that vintage Pyrex baking dish? Just the right size for a lunch-sized lasagna bake.
Now, that’s my kind of comfort food, taking me right back to my childhood.
Delicious.
