Friday, January 1, 2010

Spinach Lasagna

Spinach Lasagna with chicken. This can be made without chicken I just happened to have some leftover. I love this lasagna, it's creamy, has spinach, and is easy to change up. You can add shredded chicken, diced sauteed pancetta, sauteed mushrooms, onions, etc.
I love creamy white sauces. I like red sauce too. This is our favorite Spaghetti Sauce, this is also a favorite- 3 Ingredient Red Sauce.
I guess this is kind of a Béchamel sauce. But I'm no chef so I don't know. I do know it's good. The girls prefer a white sauce lasagna over the red also, and they love spinach so this always gets eaten.

GPAC Spinach Lasagna

Frozen spinach thawed (I used a bigger bag maybe 16 oz?)
Medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
4 tablespoons butter, I use unsalted
11/2 cups broth (I used chicken)
1/2 cup cream
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
fresh grated nutmeg
sea salt
pepper (I used white fine ground for the sauce, blend for the ricotta mixture)

Ricotta mixture
Whole milk ricotta, big tub (I think it's 16 ounces)
2 eggs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons fresh parsley finely chopped (I didn't have any, but it's good in there)
pepper

2 cups shredded cooked chicken
2-4 cups mozzarella grated- depending on how much cheese you like
Lasagna noodles- cooked if you don't use no bake ones


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 pan.
For the sauce-
Squeeze the the thawed spinach out to remove excess liquid. Melt butter in a dutch oven on med-high heat, add the onions and garlic. Cook until soft. But not browned. 
 Add flour to the pot, I grabbed whole wheat but all purpose works fine- but you'll notice my sauce isn't a "white" sauce because of the flour I used. Cook until the flour doesn't smell raw anymore and smells a little nutty. Stir and scrape the bottom of the pot constantly.
Whisk in the broth, so that there are no lumps. Turn the heat down to medium.
Add nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook until fairly thick, add cream, stir and heat until steaming. Don't boil it.
Stir in spinach. You can layer the spinach in separate but I just stir it in the sauce.

For the Ricotta Mixture- 
Mix the ricotta, salt, pepper, parsley, Parmesan and eggs in a bowl.
To layer the lasanga-
In the pan put a little bit of sauce on the bottom.
Add a layer of noodles. Top with the ricotta mixture. Add a layer of mozzarella cheese, then chicken. Repeat with sauce, noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, and chicken. Towards the end you will have a layer of just noodles, sauce and shredded cheese.
Bake for 25-30 minutes loosely covered with foil (you can spray the foil with cooking spray to keep the cheese from sticking to it). Then I remove the foil and cook for another 10 minutes to melt and brown the cheese. 
Once removed from the oven let the lasagna sit 15-20 minutes to set before cutting into it. Serve with more Parmesan and fresh basil. 


GPAC Spinach Lasagna

Frozen spinach thawed (I used a bigger bag maybe 16 oz?)
Medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
4 tablespoons butter, I use unsalted
11/2 cups broth (I used chicken)
1/2 cup cream
4 tablespoons flour
fresh grated nutmeg
sea salt
pepper (I used white fine ground for the sauce, blend for the ricotta mixture)

Ricotta mixture
Whole milk ricotta, big tub (I think it's 16 ounces)
2 eggs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons fresh parsley finely chopped (I didn't have any, but it's good in there)
Pepper

2 cups shredded cooked chicken
2-4 cups mozzarella grated- depending on how much cheese you like
Lasagna noodles- cooked if you don't use no bake ones

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 pan.

For the sauce-
Squeeze the the thawed spinach out to remove excess liquid. Melt butter in a dutch oven on med-high heat, add the onions and garlic. I didn't melt mine first, I was in a hurry :-) Cook until soft. But not browned.    
Add flour to the pot, I grabbed whole wheat but all purpose works fine. Cook until the flour doesn't smell raw anymore and smells a little nutty. Stir and scrape the bottom of the pot constantly.
Whisk in the broth, so that there are no lumps. Turn the heat down to medium.
Add nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook until fairly thick, add cream, stir and heat until steaming. Don't boil it.
Stir in spinach. You can layer the spinach in separate but I just stir it in the sauce.

For the Ricotta Mixture-
Mix the ricotta, salt, pepper, parsley, Parmesan and eggs in a bowl.

To layer the lasanga-
In the pan put a little bit of sauce on the bottom.
Add a layer of noodles. Top with the ricotta mixture. Add a layer of mozzarella cheese, then chicken. Repeat with sauce, noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, and chicken. Towards the end you will have a layer of just noodles, sauce and shredded cheese.

Bake for 25-30 minutes loosely covered with foil (you can spray the foil with cooking spray to keep the cheese from sticking to it). Then remove the foil and cook for another 10 minutes to melt and brown the cheese.
Once removed from the oven let the lasagna sit 15-20 minutes to set before cutting into it. Serve with more Parmesan and fresh basil.



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4 comments:

  1. Oh My Gosh Thank You for posting this!!!!! I'm definately making this very very very soon. Like next week :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll try to get the rest up sometime soon then LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. That looks awesome. Looking forward to the instructions.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds yummy! Will be making this at some point. :D

    ReplyDelete

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