The Best Spinach Lasagna Recipe

Nys Aqyla    9/14/2022    Baked Pasta , Pasta Mains , Spinach , VegetarianMains   

 

In this recipe

• The best way to prepare spinach
• How to Get the Best Cheese Spinach Lasagna
• Make noodles a star with fresh lasagna
• Assemble your lasagna
• For best texture, let lasagna rest before serving
  

why does it work?

• Sautéing spinach instead of blanching or microwaving it improves the flavor, while chopping allows you to incorporate it evenly into each bite.
• A blend of lightly processed ricotta and ricotta not found in a food processor gives lasagna a creamy flavor while preserving the classic mini ricotta curd in the finished dish. .
• Stacks and piles of fresh noodles make this dish a noodle dish, not just a topping.

I'm not really a sleeper. No matter how often I try and no matter what method I use, I still can't get into bed and fall asleep for four or five hours before I have to wake up. For a while, this worried me (and especially my wife), but honestly, I didn't get tired and I really appreciated the extra four hours I got to myself.

What keeps me from sleeping late at night? Granted, sometimes it's ridiculous things like The Walking Dead or Reddit or undressing my stupid dog after he got his face sprayed with blood at 2am. But most of the time, I'm cooking. Sure, I cook for work, and I do it most of the day, but I also cook to relax, and for me there's nothing more relaxing or therapeutic than carefully preparing lasagna. . Whether it's the traditional Bolognese, creamy mushrooms or Brussels sprouts, or the rich and hearty squash lasagna.

My wife told me I had to learn to relax. I think I manage very well.

I find joy in making each topping separately and balancing their flavors. The joy of spreading thin layers of pastry with just the right amount of filling to cover. I sit in front of the oven, face to the glass as the lasagna transforms from layered pasta into an irresistible, golden casserole.

 

Today we are going to look at another classic. Cream cheese and spinach lasagna flavored with a hint of nutmeg and a combination of besciamella (Italian for "white sauce") and fresh ricotta. And while I usually opt for the ease and convenience of no-boiled lasagna, today we're going with store-bought fresh noodles. There are some small but significant differences in how fresh noodles are handled.

Let's dive right into the depths of this creamy-rich pool, shall we?

The best way to prepare spinach

This is a spinach lasagna, so we want the flavor of spinach to be front and center. I have tried many different types of spinach over the years, including fresh flat leaf, curly leaf, and young leaf variety, and I find that you get the best flavor and texture with flat leaf or curly leaf spinach. fresh. They don't have the mushy, mushy texture of cooked baby spinach (plus they're cheaper), and they taste significantly better than frozen spinach, which can be muddy and sometimes even fibrous. .

I start by cooking my spinach according to the method recommended by Cook's Illustrated, blanching in boiling water until wilted. I find the process a bit cumbersome, especially since spinach absorbs more water than necessary, resulting in a diluted flavor. Microwaving it in a bowl is a bit better, but doesn't give you a chance to enhance its flavor with some aromatics.

Best method? Blow. I start by sweating shallots and garlic in a butter and olive oil mixture (for extra flavor), then add spinach a few handfuls at a time until completely tender. From there, I let it cook, letting the juices drain down until the pan looked completely dry. But looking completely dry and completely dry are two separate things. I've discovered the hard way that it's extremely important to remove as much excess liquid from your spinach as possible if you want to get consistent and reliable results. Place the cooked spinach in a colander and press down with a spatula until you have drained the last remaining tablespoons.

The last question is how to incorporate this spinach. Some recipes simply spread the chopped wilted leaves between each layer, the wilted leaves. There was a time when I also used this method. It's easy to make, but it's not ideal: The whole spinach leaf will slip out of your lasagna with each bite.

It's best to chop this spinach by grinding it through a food processor, then combine with some of your cheese mixture to disperse evenly.

Speaking of cheese, let's talk cheese, shall we?

How to Get the Best Cheese Spinach Lasagna

I know my goal here is to get fatter and start by making a standard cookie with cheese seasonings to put it all together. It's pretty good, but it lacks the rich, cheesey flavor of lasagna ricotta. Problem? Most store-bought ricotta is terrible, and I mean really terrible.

See, to save money, instead of carefully forming a curd and draining excess water as usual, most major brands will add a gum and stabilizer designed to help keep this excess water bound. inside the mixture. The result is a ricotta that's bland (after all, the milky flavor is toned down) and has an odd gum-like texture that bears little resemblance to the real thing.

There are several solutions. The first is to make your own ricotta. With our simple kitchen method, you can have fresh ricotta on the counter in about 30 minutes, although you'll need to make several batches of the amount needed for a large lasagna like this.

Also, you can look for quality brands. If you have a good local milkshake, the freshly made ricotta can't be beat. At the supermarket, check your label to see if ricotta contains nothing but milk, salt and sourdough or a little acid.

Calabro is a great brand available at Whole Foods. Be sure to get their high fat ricotta - the lower fat versions have extra stabilizers to make up for their excess water.

Your final pick? Forget the ricotta and use fresh cheese instead. It sounds strange, but the two products are made very similar and when combined with lasagna, the small cheese creates a beautiful cream color. Some people actually prefer the end result you get from small cheeses than real ricotta!

The easiest way to combine any cheese of your choice is to use it as is, stirring the eggs to help bind a bit during cooking, but I find the ricotta added this way to be a bit rocky and dry. Instead, I like to take half of the ricotta and mix it in a food processor with an egg, a generous amount of parmesan cheese for extra flavor, and freshly ground nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

To this, I add my chopped spinach with the other half of the ricotta. By combining ricotta in two different forms, you get an end result that is rich and greasy, but still has the signature mini ricotta bars interspersed.

Finally, freshly grated mozzarella and Comté, Gruyère or Emmentaler combined with some besciamella that will do everything on top.

Make noodles a star with fresh lasagna

I'm generally a big supporter of this flat, unboiled lasagna. They are especially effective if you soak them in water when preparing the toppings. But no matter how convenient they are, they never quite have the chewy bite of fresh pasta, and sometimes you just have to push all the way out, even if it's 2 a.m. the third day.

Working with sheets of store-bought fresh pasta is pretty easy. I make a large pile and use a pizza cutter to cut them into the right shape and size. Remember that fresh noodles will swell as you cook, so you need to be careful when cutting. I subtract about an inch to each side when cutting.

Fresh lasagna doesn't need to be cooked first, but stacked raw noodles will draw moisture from the filling. I find it much easier to judge the texture of the finished lasagna if you bake it first.

Cook a few cut noodles at a time in a pot of boiling salted water. They should be cooked until very tasty - less than a minute in water is fine.

 

Transfer them to the sink and soak them under cold running water, gently unfolding the leaves and being careful not to tear them.

Spread the washed leaves on a clean tea towel, then repeat with the rest of the noodles. To save space, I like to place one layer of noodles on one half of a napkin, fold the other half, then layer the next layer of noodles on top. I repeat with more towels if needed.

Dry noodles when not boiled will absorb liquid and become very thick when cooked, so it is difficult to stack more than five to six layers in a single lasagna pan. When it comes to using fresh noodles, I prefer the more traditional approach and really make the noodles the star of the show. I would go for 12 classes or even more.

Stack and Go: Assemble Your Lasagna

We got our besciamella cheese, our spinach and ricotta mix, and our noodles, leaving us with the most therapeutic and enjoyable part: stacking.

I like to start with a thin layer of besciamella on the bottom of the lasagna pan that has been greased to give the bottom layer of noodles something to cling to.

In a layer of pasta.

Next is a thin, thin layer of spinach mixture. Remember: 12 classes to go here! It's okay if the pasta has white spots, anyway it will settle and change during the cooking process. 

Followed by a small piece of fish fillet.

I spread it with the back of a spoon.

I repeat the process until I use both the pasta and the spinach mixture.

For the top layer, I mixed things up a bit by combining the finely grated cheese. This gives the top part a softer and more stretchy coating. Another layer of besciamella to hold everything together and it's ready to go.

To let the cheese melt, I start by coating the lasagna with foil for the first 15 minutes of the 30-40 minute cooking time. Then, the foil unfolds and continue cooking the lasagna until bubbly and golden brown all around.

You may find that with fresh lasagna noodles, you get a little puff due to the steam trapped between the layers of noodles. If you look in your oven (or like me, sit in the glass for 40 minutes) and notice a bulge in the center of your lasagna, just stab it with a thin paring knife. this trapped evaporator.

For best texture, let lasagna rest before serving

When the lasagna is nice, golden and fragrant, it is ready to take out of the oven. You'll be tempted to jump in, but for the best texture, sit for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

And for red sauce lovers...

 

 When I did a quick survey on Twitter, there was a scathing response that a good spinach lasagna shouldn't have ketchup. That said, there's a strong vocal minority that really enjoy the tomato and spinach combination. I say feel free to add a few cups of ketchup in layers here and there. Am I brave enough to recommend my slow cooker Italian-American red sauce as a good candidate?

 

Recipe event

Preparation: 20 minutes                Make: 8 to 10 servings

Cooking: 100 minutes

Activity: 60 minutes

Total: 2 hours

Ingredients

 

For spinach:

2 tablespoons butter, divided

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 purple onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)

6 medium cloves of garlic, minced (about 2 tablespoons)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 pounds fresh or curly spinach leaves, washed and dried

For Ricotta:

2 pounds fresh ricotta cheese (see note)

2 large eggs

4 ounces finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

For the white sauce:

4 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup flour

1 liter (4 cups) whole milk

12 ounces shredded low-moisture mozzarella cheese

12 ounces Comté, Gruyère or Emmentaler . grated cheese

To assemble:

1 1/2 pounds (enough leaves to form 12 layers) fresh lasagna noodles

 

 

Direction

1. For the spinach: Heat olive oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add the shallot and garlic, season with a pinch of salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and fragrant, about 1 minute. Add a few large handfuls of spinach and cook, stirring, until tender. Continue adding a handful of spinach at a time until it's all in the pot. Cook and stir frequently until the spinach has evaporated and most of the moisture has evaporated, leaving the bottom dry as you stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Transfer the spinach to a fine mesh colander over the sink and use a rubber spatula to remove excess moisture. Let the spinach continue to drain while you prepare the ricotta mixture. 

 

3. For the ricotta: Transfer half of the ricotta, including the eggs, Parmesan, and nutmeg to the bowl of a food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Process until completely smooth, about 1 minute.

4. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl, but do not wipe out the food processor. Transfer the spinach to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, 10-12 short pulses. Add the remaining spinach and ricotta to the ricotta mixture and gently fold to combine.

5. For the white sauce: Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add the flour and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring in butter and flour with a whisk, until lightly golden brown, about 1 minute. Beat milk continuously, milk flows out slowly. Continue cooking, whisking frequently, until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat and add 3/4 mozzarella and Comté, Gruyère or Emmenthal. Whip until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

6. To assemble: Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add several sheets of pasta at a time and cook until almost tender, about 45 seconds. Transfer to a fine mesh colander and run under cold running water until thoroughly cooled. Switch to a layer of clean kitchen towel. Continue until all pasta is partially cooked and dry.

7. Pour a small amount of white sauce into the bottom of a lasagna plate or large pan. Add a layer of noodles. Garnish with 1/12 of the spinach mixture and the remaining 1/12 of the white sauce. Continue layering the pasta, spinach, and white sauce until you drop the top piece of pasta down.

8. Spread the remaining spinach mixture evenly over the top. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Comté or Emmental cheese and drizzle with remaining white sauce. Use a rubber spatula to spread an even layer.

9. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until bubbly and lightly browned, about 20 minutes more. Let stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes, then slice and serve.