Saturday, December 29, 2012

Weekend Dinner - Spinach & Mushroom Lasagna Roll-ups

A few months ago, I made lasagna with a homemade turkey meat sauce.  As a result of that recipe, I have had a box of semi-used lasagna noodles in my cupboard ever since.  To use up this box of noodles somehow, I started browsing the internet for recipes.  Turns out, there is this thing out there called lasagna roll-up which is like a regular lasagna but comes in self-contain packages.  Great, that's a good idea; but what fillings am I going to use?  The meat sauce last time was good but I do not want to make it again; I just scrubbed down my stove to return it to its original glory!  Besides, we've had so much meat this past week with Christmas.  So after some more browsing, I found a recipe that seems both tasty & easy to do.

To make 8 lasagna roll ups...
     2.5 cups mushrooms, diced small
     4 cloves garlic, minced
     6 ounces baby spinach, chopped
     8 lasagna noodles
     10 ounces whole milk ricotta
     1 egg
     0.2 cups grated Parmesan
     2 cups pre-made tomato pasta sauce
     1.5 cups low-moisture mozzarella cheese, grated
     Salt & pepper to taste

This shouldn't take too long...
     Cook the lasagna noodles 1 minute less than the package instructions
     While the noodles are cooking, sauté vegetables until the water is released; season with salt/pepper
     In a bowl, combine together egg, ricotta, & parmesan cheese
     Lay cooked noodles on a flat surface & spread on a thin coat of the cheese mixture
     Top off each noodle with a layer of the vegetables & roll them up carefully
     Arrange the lasagna rolls in a single layer in a shallow baking dish
     Cover the lasagna rolls with a coating of tomato sauce & sprinkle with mozzarella cheese
     Bake at 350F for 25 minutes

























The end product was pretty good & it took a lot less time in the oven than a traditional lasagna.  It was was also definitely much easier serving out the individual roll-ups than trying to cut out rectangular pieces.  I used the Trader Joe's tomato basil marinara sauce & it was too sweet for my liking.  Are all pre-made tomato sauces so sweet?  I bought a block of mozzarella & tried to grate it with my Microplane but I guess it was too soft a cheese to grate.  It worked, but it took a lot longer & a lot more work to get just enough cheese to cover the top.  From now on, I am either going to use a box grater or buy shredded mozzarella & call it a day.

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