Roll With It: Recipe

A long time ago someone gave me an idea for a cool dinner party presentation of an old stand-by - lasagna. She suggested a "Roll-Up." I flirted with making them many times and ultimately opted for other things but Sunday I decided that Lasagna Roll-Ups would make a great mid-week dish and so I made a batch that day and put them in the fridge until Tuesday night.

I have little children so walking in the door at 6:00 and eating dinner at 7:00 or 7:15 would not be ideal, naturally. You may have an easier time with your family dynamic - maybe you have older children who can wait a little longer to eat or maybe it's just you and your spouse and surely you can hold off, etc. So I was fortunate that someone was home at 4:30 to put the dish in the oven and by 5:45 dinner was ready to be served. I simply heated up some extra sauce and served it. If you place these in the oven immediately after rolling, I'd suggest the cooking time would be much less - maybe only 30 minutes.

Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups
16 oz. package of lasagna noodles - (not fresh)
1 10 oz. pkg. frozen spinach, cooked according to directions and squeezed of excess water
15 oz. Ricotta Cheese
1/4 cup Pecorino-Romano Cheese + 3 Tbsp.
2 eggs
16 oz. mozzarella, shredded
3 cups of sauce

Preheat oven to 350. Cook the lasagna noodles according to package directions and drain well. Meanwhile, combine spinach, ricotta, pecorino, eggs and 3/4 of the mozzarella in a large bowl. Mix well.

Spread one cup of sauce over the bottom of a large lasagna pan. Place one noodle on top of a plate and starting at the end closest to you spread 2 heaping tablespoons of the mixture onto the noodle. Roll the noodle away from you and smooth the end of the noodle on top of roll-up. Place the roll-up, seam side down, into the pan. Repeat until all are complete. Spoon the remaining sauce over the roll-ups and top with the remaining shredded mozzarella. Sprinkle the top with the remaining Pecorino cheese.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the top is browned and cheese is melted.