Saturday, July 06, 2013

Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna







I love experimenting. But what I love most is when these experiments turn out great. Just like this green lasagna. When I cut the first slice I was amazed by the bright green colour. What surprised me even more, was the perfect texture. It was so easy to slice it nicely and take it out of the baking pan without leaving it in the room temperature after baking to set. But actually when I saw that green colour, I was a little bit scared - I was afraid there was too much spinach! And this is how the story began. My mother brought a few large bags of spinach from her own garden. So that meant I had to think of something delicious to make to use up these spinach. I searched for a recipe, browsed the tried ones until I found lasagna noodles in my cupboard and came up with idea of making green lasagna.

And that was a very good idea.

The taste was amazing! There wasn't too much spinach. The layers were creamy and so so good. I took too many photos again.. But at least you can see how this lasagna looks from every angle.





Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna

14 no-boil lasagna noodles
4 packed cups chopped spinach (about 300g)*
2 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 white bell pepper, chopped
60g parmesan cheese
100g mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
400g ricotta cheese
2 cups pasta sauce
1/3 tsp salt
pinch ground pepper

*I packed the cups with already chopped spinach very tightly. It might be more than 300g - this is just an approximate measurement. I think it will be ok if you add a little more or less of them.

1) Heat oil in a pan and add onions and bell pepper. Saute until softened and lightly golden. Add garlic and saute a little more. Turn off the heat and let cool a bit.

2) In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add ricotta, spinach, half of parmesan and half of mozzarella cheese. Add salt and pepper. When the onion/bell pepper mixture has cooled, add it to the spinach mixture. Mix everything until combined.

3) Preheat oven to 180C and prepare a 23x23 square baking dish.

4) Pour 1 cup of pasta sauce onto the bottom of your baking dish and coat it evenly. Place lasagna noodles on top. Spread some spinach mixture on top of them. Repeat these steps 3 times (except for the pasta sauce). Finally, spread the remaining pasta sauce onto the noodles and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for additional 15-20 minutes. Let sit for about 15 minutes before serving.



20 comments:

  1. It had to be fun, you looking a the soooo green dish and thinking: Ooops.

    Is it about spinach, I once made english muffins with spinach, and they were too green, but the taste was not exaggerated!!

    I'm more of cannelloni than a lasagna peoples, but this dish (can I use some pine nuts?), wow, I love it!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I saw your english muffins, they were really green! :D
      Even if I'm not a big fan of nuts in lasagna, I always love unexpected additions! A single ingredient can make the dish taste completely different and maybe very delicious? :)

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  2. This lasagna is absolutely gorgeous!

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  3. This lasagna is gorgeous! I'm jealous of how perfectly green it is:). Spinach, ricotta, lasagna? How could this not be amazing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank youu :) True, the combination is the best!!

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  4. Looks amazing! Definitely going to make it.

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  5. yummmmyyy this looks divine!! thanks for sharing the recipe <3

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  6. I was preparing to make somthing similar to this tonight, but I couldn't figure out where step #1 fit into this whole process. Did you add the onion/pepper mix to the sauce, to the ricotta, or did you layer it in? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I mixed the onion/pepper mixture into the ricotta/spinach mixture after it had cooled. My instructions were a little bit confusing, I'll fix it. Sorry!

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  7. What are the conversions for US? I don't use grams here ):

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 100g of mozzarella cheese equals 1 cup grated. 60g of parmesan is approx 2/3 cup of grated cheese. 400g ricotta is almost 2 cups. These are approximate conversions and I can't be sure they're completely accurate. Hope this helps anyway!

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  8. I made this lasagne a few days ago and I absolutely loved it! My family couldn't stop eating and praising ;) If you are interested the outcome is on my blog http://sosisterly.blogspot.com/2013/08/lasagne-ze-szpinakiem.html unfortunately I haven't had the time to translate it into english but at least you can see the picture :)
    Love your blog! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Magda, thank you! It's so nice to hear that you enjoyed the lasagna! I checked your blog and it looks very nice :) I hope you will find more recipes here and leave a feedback!

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  9. OMG, nice recipe but so many same pictures!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, you're right! I'm kind of hopeless when it comes to selecting pictures..

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  10. You told us your life history on spinach supplied an album of 15 photos, but neglected the temperature or conrol of the oven, was this recipe all about you...mmmnnn

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  11. It's true, The BEST Lasagna is Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna. If you baked Classic Italian Lasagna in Essence Chambery Cast Iron 11.8-Inch Orange Lasagna Pan which is the best lasgna pan from https://bestlasagnapan.com/. would you like to check out. Which one am I using for it.

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