Spinach Lasagna

by Mar 19, 2017

Simple cooking relies on the best tasting, best quality ingredients. For lasagna, that means flavorful, good textured pasta, a marinara that isn’t overpowering, Italian cheese, and frozen spinach that still has flavor. Here are specific brands that I like to use:

The fun starts once you get the ingredients prepared (pasta boiled, spinach thawed, sausage cooked, cheese shredded). Layer into your pan: sauce, pasta, ricotta, sausage (if you’re using it), spinach, mozarella, and parm.  Repeat three times, ending with cheese on top. Cover with foil, bake it an hour, let it rest a few minutes, then serve it for dinner.  Here are a couple photos I snapped along the way:

 

lasagnabefore

mid assembly…

 

lasagnabefore2

finished assembly

 

*****

My friend Don hosted a small group of us for dinner at his apartment in San Francisco when we were all working at Oracle a long time ago. He used standard, wavy-edged lasagne and didn’t boil them first. I had never heard of such a thing, but it worked great. He emailed me his recipe and I wrote it up several years later when I started this blog. Return to that original if you want to skip the pre-boiling of the lasagne, or squint and go by Don’s rough guidelines:

 

donsrecipelasagna

 

Spinach Lasagne

Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces lasagne noodles, about 12 noodles Rustichella D'abruzzo lasagne sheets or standard lasagne noodles
  • 8–10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed Stahlbush
  • 3 links Italian sausage, hot or mild, cooked and sliced into rounds or crumbled optional
  • 1 26-ounce jar marinara Dave's Gourmet Red Heirloom or Rao's Marinara
  • 16 ounces whole milk ricotta Galbani's
  • 8 ounces mozzarella, shredded
  • 2 ounces Parmesan, grated

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. When it comes to boil, add a couple tablespoons of salt. Cook the pasta al dente, following package instructions. Remove pasta from the water and set aside.

  2. Place spinach into a colander over the sink. Press and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Set aside.

  3. Cook the sausage in oven (about 15 minutes at 350°) or remove from casing and cook in a frying pan on the stovetop. If left whole, slice into discs about ¼-inch thick.

  4. Assemble the lasagne in a glass or ceramic dish, around 8x10-inches. Start with a few tablespoons of sauce, then layer pasta, ricotta, sausage (if using), spinach, mozzarella, and parmesan. Repeat for a total of three layers, ending with cheese on top. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour, removing foil for the last 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit 10–30 minutes before serving.

 

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