Food Friday : Cheese and Spinach Lasagna
It has cheese! And vegetables! That means its healthy, right? It just flies off hte platter so fast you'd think it's junk food.
I love the long flat lasagna noodles. They hold the stuffing so well, and aremuch easier to work with than stuffing giant shells.
8 oz lasagna noodles, cooked
Cheese mix:
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 c non-fat cottage cheese
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ c grated parmesan cheese
Optional:
1 ½ tbsp. parsley
2 10 oz packages chopped spinach, sauté
Sauce:
32 oz tomato sauce
1 ½ c water
½ chopped onion, sauté
2 clove garlic, sauté
½ tsp basil
½ tsp oregano
Note: make in advance so it has time to chill before you cut. Then re-heat.
Cutting a warm gooey lasagna… it’s messy.
If some people don’t want spinach and some do… make two. Really. Making two at once is twice the work but not twice the cleanup, and this freezes well if you seal it airtight and defrost it in the oven at 250.
Or, put some cheese mix to the side and add spinach to the rest. Make 2 out of 3 ‘lanes’ of lasagna noodles according to the majority’s preference and the remaining row according to the minority.
Start with the most time consuming parts:
Start water boiling and chop onions.
Sauté onions and put lasagna noodles in pot. (If they don’t fit in the pot, you may have to move them around until the noodles are soft enough to fit.
Add chopped garlic when onions are half done, or they will burn.
Opt: sauté spinach in a separate pan, since it’s going in the cheese mix and not the sauce.
Make cheese mix and sauce mix.
Preheat oven to 350.
Drain noodles.
If you are making a second lasagna, start cooking the second batch of noodles and sauté the second batch of onions etc.
Put a layer of sauce on bottom of baking pan.
Layer noodles, cheeses, sauce until everything is used up.
Note that it’s better (taste, calories) to have a thick layer of sauce than an extra layer of noodles with thin layers of cheese.
Cover, bake 55 minutes.
Uncover, bake 15 minutes.
Stand 15 minutes to firm up, serve (but really, chill first, then cut and reheat).
I make this for at least two holidays a year, when large pans of food are needed.
I love the long flat lasagna noodles. They hold the stuffing so well, and aremuch easier to work with than stuffing giant shells.
8 oz lasagna noodles, cooked
Cheese mix:
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 c non-fat cottage cheese
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ c grated parmesan cheese
Optional:
1 ½ tbsp. parsley
2 10 oz packages chopped spinach, sauté
Sauce:
32 oz tomato sauce
1 ½ c water
½ chopped onion, sauté
2 clove garlic, sauté
½ tsp basil
½ tsp oregano
Note: make in advance so it has time to chill before you cut. Then re-heat.
Cutting a warm gooey lasagna… it’s messy.
If some people don’t want spinach and some do… make two. Really. Making two at once is twice the work but not twice the cleanup, and this freezes well if you seal it airtight and defrost it in the oven at 250.
Or, put some cheese mix to the side and add spinach to the rest. Make 2 out of 3 ‘lanes’ of lasagna noodles according to the majority’s preference and the remaining row according to the minority.
Start with the most time consuming parts:
Start water boiling and chop onions.
Sauté onions and put lasagna noodles in pot. (If they don’t fit in the pot, you may have to move them around until the noodles are soft enough to fit.
Add chopped garlic when onions are half done, or they will burn.
Opt: sauté spinach in a separate pan, since it’s going in the cheese mix and not the sauce.
Make cheese mix and sauce mix.
Preheat oven to 350.
Drain noodles.
If you are making a second lasagna, start cooking the second batch of noodles and sauté the second batch of onions etc.
Put a layer of sauce on bottom of baking pan.
Layer noodles, cheeses, sauce until everything is used up.
Note that it’s better (taste, calories) to have a thick layer of sauce than an extra layer of noodles with thin layers of cheese.
Cover, bake 55 minutes.
Uncover, bake 15 minutes.
Stand 15 minutes to firm up, serve (but really, chill first, then cut and reheat).
I make this for at least two holidays a year, when large pans of food are needed.