Spinach Lasagna

A few years ago my sister Regina made a delicious Spinach Lasagna. She got the recipe from my cousin Gabrielle. I made it once, two summers ago, and wrote down a few changes I made to the recipe, mostly that I tripled the amount of sauce and had to bake it at a higher temperature and for longer. I made it again today, but this time I used homemade lasagna noodles and it was even better! I also used Breakstone's Whole Milk Ricotta, which doesn't have the additives most store-bought ricotta has in it. It's just milk, vinegar and salt, the way ricotta should be. I always prefer homemade ricotta but I don't always have time to make it, so this was a nice alternative without any added junk. I also shredded a block of mozzarella rather than using pre-shredded cheese.

The recipe below is based off the recipe from my cousin Gabrielle, with the changes that I made to mine. This is a delicious meat-less meal, but you can easily serve it with cooked sausage links, bread and salad to make a complete meal.

Since this is a bit of a process and takes a while to make (it took me about 4 hours), this is what I did. I started out by sautéing the spinach. I let it cool while I began to make the sauce. While the sauce cooked, I made my pasta dough. While my dough was covered and resting, I blended the tomato sauce with an immersion blender, chopped the spinach, mixed the ricotta filling, and shredded the mozzarella. I used my new Marcato Atlas 180 roller and went to thickness setting #8. Once all of my dough was rolled out into long sheets, I cut the sheets the same length as my lasagna dish. I let them rest for 10-15 minutes before I started assembling my lasagna. I did not parboil them - there's no need to as long as there is enough sauce covering them. I used 2 lasagna sheets for each of the 3 layers. This was the perfect amount of dough for 1 lasagna plus a long sheet leftover that I cut into pappardelle for my son who doesn't like lasagna. I had enough sauce for 1 lasagna, the pappardelle, extra sauce to serve on top of everyone's pieces of lasagna and about 5 cups left that I froze for a future meal.

I had my sister and her husband over for dinner and between the 5 people eating lasagna, we only had 1.5 pieces left. This lasagna is so good and I'm sure I'll be making it again soon!

Spinach Lasagna

Adapted from Gabrielle Capobianco Feezer

Sauce: 

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

6 garlic cloves, minced

3 6-ounce cans Tomato Paste

2 6-ounce cans water

Red wine, to taste

3 28-ounce cans Whole Tomatoes

Salt and Pepper, to taste

 

Ricotta Mixture:

1 bag of frozen Spinach OR 11 ounces fresh Spinach, chopped

2 pounds Ricotta Cheese

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Salt and Pepper, to taste

 

Lasagna:

1 box Oven-Ready Lasagna Noodles or 1 recipe homemade lasagna noodles

1 pound Mozzarella cheese, grated

Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated - to taste

 

To start, make the sauce in a 6-quart pot. Heat the olive oil in the pot over medium heat. Add the minced garlic - be careful not to burn it. Cook for a minute or two and then add the tomato paste and water. Add red wine. Stir to combine and then add the whole tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, partly cover and turn the heat to medium low and let it simmer.

 

Before using the sauce in the assembly of the lasagna, using a potato hand masher, squish the whole tomatoes. This is more easily done when the tomatoes have been cooking for a little while. This will give a chunky sauce. If you prefer a smooth sauce, use an immersion blender at this point. Alternately, blend the whole tomatoes, tomato paste and water in a blender first before cooking it with the garlic. You can also use crushed tomatoes that don’t need to be blended at all, if you prefer.

 

If using frozen spinach for the ricotta mixture, defrost with warm water and set aside. Drain and squeeze out most of the water before adding it to the ricotta mixture. For fresh spinach, heat a little oil in a pan and sauté the spinach until cooked. Let it cool and then chop up the cooked spinach.

 

In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, eggs and spinach. Stir to combine completely and then season with salt and pepper.

 

Using a 9x13 baking dish, add a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan, then place a single row of noodles. Spoon half of the ricotta mixture over the noodles and then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Spoon a layer of sauce and then sprinkle with grated parmesan or Romano cheese. Repeat this entire layer order one more time and then finish with another layer of noodles, topped with sauce and then finished with grated parmesan or Romano cheese.

 

Preheat oven to 350°. Place a sheet pan on the bottom rack of the oven in case any sauce spills over. Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and cook for 30 minutes and then continue cooking uncovered for an additional 15 minutes. (Note: depending on your oven, you may have to cook at a higher temperature or for a longer time. I cooked mine at 375° but it took over an hour).