Weeknight Spinach and Ricotta Lasagna
Published March 26, 2024
- Total Time
- 1¼ hours
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 9ounces (dry) no-boil, oven-ready lasagna sheets
- 1(10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed (undrained)
- 15ounces whole-milk ricotta
- 1(24-ounce) jar pasta sauce, such as vodka or marinara
- 2cups vegetable stock
- ½ to 1teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1cup grated low-moisture mozzarella
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Handful of torn soft herbs, such as oregano, basil, or parsley, to serve
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
641 calories; 17 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 40 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 17 grams protein; 222 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Step 2
Break up each lasagna sheet into 5 to 6 pieces and place them in a large bowl. (They can be a mixture of large and small; you can expect irregularity.) Add the spinach and half the ricotta, and fold through to coat the broken pasta sheets. Add the pasta sauce, stock and crushed red pepper; stir to combine.
- Step 3
Transfer the mixture to a large, 8-by-12-inch baking dish, distributing the pasta evenly and pressing it down until submerged in the sauce. Top with the mozzarella and drizzle with olive oil.
- Step 4
Cover with foil, tenting it to prevent it from sticking to the top, place on a baking sheet (to catch any drips) and bake for 20 minutes.
- Step 5
Remove the foil, increase heat to 425 degrees and bake until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the cheesy top is golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Step 6
Top with remaining ricotta and drizzle with olive oil. Like traditional lasagna, this dish is best rested for 10 minutes before eating (if you can wait!). When ready to serve, top with soft herbs.
Private Notes
Comments
Save yourself time and money: You don’t need to boil the noodles, NOR do you need to buy the “oven-ready” variety. Regular, dried lasagna sheets, when layered with the wet ingredients, will soften on their own in the oven as the whole lasagna bakes.
Some criticism has been leveled at the creator of this recipe, I'd like to remind you this is for a quick weeknight supper. I have for a long time used RAO's marinara sauce as a base for my Sunday sauce and add sauted chopped onions, garlic and anything else that sounds good from the vegetable drawer. It's a great base. A good one to have in the pantry...
Come on, jarred sauce is fine and perfect for a quick weeknight meal! But if you really can't bring yourself to open a jar, try Marcella Hazan's three ingredient sauce recipe: a big 28 oz can of good quality tomatoes, simmered with 5Tb of butter and a halved onion for half an hour/40 mins while you preheat the oven and get everything else mixed together. Remove the onion, mash or blitz the tomatoes, season with salt, then feel smug about yourself as everything bakes.
Wow! I wish I had know about this recipe when I was a single working mother and my kids were still at home—they would have loved it, and even better, probably could have prepared it themselves! It took less than 10 minutes to prepare, and they would have loved it. I also cut back the amount of stock to one cup, and I added lots of grated parmesan on top.
I usually only cook the 5-star recipes but I gave this 4-star recipe 5 stars. It’s a quick construction for a tasty meal. I added fresh spinach to the mix and used frozen chopped kale instead of frozen spinach as I didn’t have any.
Great