A different way to make a lasagne, and by far one of the best recipes I have made in a while. I will admit, it was a bit more work than I would have liked, but well worth the effort. Creamy, gooey cheese heaven! Caution: Not for the people on a diet
The recipe in it’s original form is a vegetarian, very cheesy, version. I made my recipe with ground chicken and some additional seasonings. What I did was lightly fry the ground meat (or chicken in my case) and add some season all or adobo, very finely chopped mushrooms and an extra 2 cloves of pressed garlic. The meat doesn’t have to cook through, max 7 minutes. The meat can cook the rest of the way in the oven. Then add the tomato sauce as recipe asks for. I used a store bought basil pasta sauce and threw over the meat and mushrooms. Then follow remainder of recipe as if it was just the tomato sauce.
Spinach and Ricotta Rotolo
A different twist to making lasagne.
Servings: 5 people
Calories: 553kcal
Cost: €7
Equipment
- large skillet that can go in the oven
- large baking dish (if skillet can't go in the oven)
- Mixing bowl
- I would recommend a sharp! knife to cut lasagne leaves after rolled
Ingredients
Lasagne basics:
- 8-10 sheets lasagne leaves fresh (easier to roll) – see notes
- 1 cup mozarella cheese shredded
- 1 tbsp olive oil for drizzling
Filling:
- 500 grams spinach frozen (pre-chopped) is easier, if you choose for fresh then make sure to chop very fine
- 500 grams ricotta cheese
- ½ cup parmesan cheese shredded
- 1-3 garlic cloves depending on taste – minced/pressed
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg powder can also use fresh nutmeg
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Tomato sauce (can be substituted with store bought pasta sauce):
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced/pressed
- ½ onion finely diced (brown,yellow,white onion)
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 700 grams tomato passata See notes
- 1½ cup water
- handful basil leaves diced
Instructions
Tomato Sauce:
- Heat oil in a 25cm/10" ovenproof skillet over medium high heat.
- Add garlic and sauté for 10 seconds then add onion.
- Cook onion until translucent and starting to turn golden, then passata, water, chilli flakes (if using), salt and pepper.
- Simmer for 5 minutes on medium low, then stir through basil. Should be quite thin – the lasagna sheets will absorb water while in the oven so sauce thickens alot in oven.
- Scoop out 1 cup of the Tomato Sauce which will be used to drizzle over the dish at the end. Keep sauce warm.
- If you go with the storebought pasta sauce, warm up sauce in a sauce pan before putting in the oven.
Filling & Assembling:
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350CF (all oven types)
- Place Filling ingredients in a bowl. Mix well with wooden spoon or sturdy spatula
- Lay out the lasagne sheet with the shorter end in front of you. (see video)
- Place 1/3 cup (packed) of filling onto the lasagne sheet. Dab some water on the end furthest away from you (to seal the roll), then roll up starting from the end closest to you. Finish with the seal down.
- If you are using a baking dish instead of the oven-capable skillet, pour remaining sauce into dish
- Cut rolls into 3 (so each piece is 3.5cm/1.5" wide). Place the rolls into the tomato sauce with the filling facing up. (use sharp knife – it will save you a lot of frustration compared to using a dull knife)
- Repeat with remaining lasagna sheets until all the Filling is used up.
- Drizzle the reserved tomato sauce over (don't cover completely, leave some exposed).
- Cover loosely with foil, bake 30 minutes
- Remove from oven, remove foil, drizzle with oil, top with mozzarella.
- Bake 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden and you've got some crunchy golden bits on the edge. Serve!
Video
Notes
You can mix and match this recipe based on your own wishes. The recipe in it’s original form is a vegetarian, very cheesy, version. I made my recipe with ground chicken and some additional seasonings. What I did was lightly fry the ground meat (or chicken in my case) and add some season all or adobo, very finely chopped mushrooms, an extra 2 cloves of pressed garlic. The meat can cook the rest of the way in the oven. Then add the tomato sauce as recipe asks for. I used a store bought basil pasta sauce and threw over the meat and mushrooms. Then follow remainder of recipe as if it was just the tomato sauce.
1. Lasagna sheets
To use fresh, you’ll need 3 bunches of English spinach – chop off stems, wash throughly, blanch until wilted then finely chop, squeeze out excess liquid and use per recipe (you need 1.5 cups packed, after water squeezed out).
3. Ricotta:
5. Passata is pureed tomato, thinner than tomato paste and smoother than crushed tomatoes. Sometimes labelled “tomato puree” in the US.
You can substitute with crushed tomatoes but you will need to add and extra 1 cup of water and simmer for 20 minutes so the tomato breaks down more.
6. Cooking vessel – if you don’t have the right size oven proof skillet, just make the sauce in any frypan then transfer into a baking dish. One way to figure out the right size is to make all the roll ups, stand them upright on a plate then you’ll know how big a baking dish you need. I used a large lasagne sized baking dish. It was actually too big, but better that it is too big than too small.
7. To make ahead, this is best frozen before baking. Cool the tomato sauce, then stir in an extra 3/4 cup water (the lasagna sheets hydrate even when not in oven, if you don’t do this, you end up with thick tomato sauce once cooked).
Assemble the dish but do not put the cheese on, freeze in an airtight container, then defrost completely. Bake 40 minutes covered (takes longer fridge cold) then top with cheese and bake 15 min per recipe.
If you freeze it after baking it: defrost completely then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of water (most of it over the pasta sauce) per 6 pieces of rotolo before reheating. If you reheat it in the microwave, stick it under the grill/broiler for a few minutes (after reheating it) to make the top crunchy again, and I also recommend adding some fresh cheese, just to freshen the dish up. To reheat it in the oven, reheat at 180C/300F (covered with foil) until just warmed through ~ 15 nin. Then remove the cover, scatter over some fresh cheese then return to oven until the top is crunchy, the cheese melted and the rotolo is heated through.
8. Nutrition per serving.
- need to be fresh sheets from the fridge section so they can be rolled up
- If you use dried sheets – boil them per packet, drain then use.
- size – don’t worry if your lasagne sheets are not exactly the same size (they come in all different sizes). They can be any size as long as they can be cut to size so they are long enough to roll up, then can be cut into 3.5 – 4 cm / 1.5″ little logs.
- Paesanella brand is my favourite (vac packed baskets at Harris and delis);
- Don’t use spreadable / whipped or smooth ricotta, these are for spreading on things so they are fluffier and creamier;
- 250g/8oz cream cheese softened +250g/8oz cottage cheese*
- Greekish spin – 250g/8oz cream cheese softened + 150g/5oz feta (preferably Danish, the creamier rather than crumbly feta, if you can find it) + 100g/3oz cottage cheese* (or more feta)
Shoutout to the owner of this recipe. By far one of the best recipes I have had in a long time! Original recipe can be found here: https://www.recipetineats.com/baked-spinach-ricotta-rotolo/