Delicious Spinach Lasagna

How To Cook Delicious Spinach Lasagna

Delicious Spinach Lasagna - This spinach lasagna recipe is simple to prepare. If this is just your first time to try making lasagna (or lasagna), you should not be intimidated. Think of this as a 3 step process: 1 – make the meat sauce, 2 – make the white sauce (also called mornay sauce), 3 – assemble the lasagna and bake. This is very simple and straightforward. If you still have some questions of hesitations, the comment box is below this post. Post a question and I will do my best to reply on a timely manner.
Just so you know, the meat sauce for this dish is nothing fancy. It can also be used if you want to make spaghetti or macaroni dishes. The mornay sauce, on the other hand, was derived from our yummy baked macaroni recipe. If you have done that before, I am sure that it will look familiar to you.

Delicious Spinach lasagna 

Spinach Lasagna is a delicious pasta dish that I enjoy. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy a rich and tasty pasta dish that is served warm with melted cheeses and white sauce? Every bite will surely put a smile in your face.

Delicious Spinach Lasagna Time And Duration

Prep time 20 mins Cook time 60 mins Total time 1 hour 20 mins

Delicious Spinach Lasagna Ingredients

• 1 (9 oz.) box, oven ready lasagna
• 1 1/2 lb. ground beef
• 3 oz. (1/2 can) tomato paste
• 1 medium yellow onion, minced
• 1 (14 oz.) can diced tomato
• 1 (14 oz) can, chopped spinach
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh milk
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Delicious Spinach Lasagna Steps And Method For Cooking

1. Prepare the meat sauce by heating the oil in a pan.
2. Once the oil is hot, saute the onion until it turns soft.
3. Add the ground beef and cook until it browns.
4. Pour-in the diced tomatoes. Let boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add the tomato paste. Stir and cook until the sauce thickens.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. set the meat sauce aside.
7. Meanwhile, prepare the mornay sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan.
8. Once the butter melts, gradually add the flour. Stir and cook in low to medium heat until the flour absorbs the butter (around 2 minutes).
9. Pour the milk in the sauce pan. Stir to dilute the flour and butter.
10. Add Parmesan cheese. Stir and cook until the sauce thickens. Set aside.
11. Preheat oven to 350F.
12. At this point, we have the meat sauce and mornay sauce ready. Assemble the lasagna by arranging the lasagna pieces in a baking pan. Line the oven-ready lasagna at the bottom of the pan. Top the first layer with 1/3 of the meat sauce. Top the meat sauce with spinach. Pour a quarter (1/4) of the mornay sauce over the spinach and spread until the entire pan is covered. Do this step 2 times more so that you will have 3 layers in the pan.
13. Top the last layer with lasagna pieces then pour and spread the remaining mornay sauce on top. Sprinkle sharp cheddar cheese on top.
14. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.
15. Remove from the oven. Serve.

Delicious Spinach lasagna Additional Trivia

Lasagna is a popular oven-baked pasta dish of fresh egg pasta squares. It is a traditional dish from Bologna in Northern Italy, where the sheets are always green through the addition of spinach or nettles to the egg dough. In Bologna, these home made sheets are layered with small amounts of real Bolognese ragù (made with both beef and pork, very little tomato and no southern herbs like oregano and basil but a little nutmeg instead) and simialrly small amounts of "besciamella" or béchamel sauce in an oven dish. There are at least 5 layers of pasta dough, and the layers stay separate and do not "merge" together into a mush. A light sprinkling of Parmigiano-Reggiano , and a few dabs of butter end the dish which is then baked for about half an hour. The use of Mozzarella in place of Béchamel suggests a Neapolitan variation to the original Bologna classic, as does the use of Ricotta.

Lasagne refers to multiple sheets of pasta; lasagna refers to the dish or to individual sheets of pasta.
In Italy but especially outside, many lasagna variations exist today. Vegetable lasagna, lasagna without béchamel sauce, lasagna without any sauce (just vegetables and/or meat) or even lasagna without sheets of pasta.
When assembling a lasagna, start with the main ingredient (ragu, vegetables, seafood, etc.), add a layer of béchamel sauce, then one layer of lasagne pasta sheets and then the main ingredient again. Continue until the oven dish is full. End with a layer of pasta, spread some béchamel sauce on top and sprinkle the cheese over it.

The Pasta
When it comes to the pasta dough there is, as always, a choice between home-made pasta and store bought sheets of dried pasta. Since dried pasta is made with just water and flour and home made fresh pasta usually includes eggs, there is a distinct difference in flavour and texture. The main difference, however, comes from ease of use. Making pasta from scratch can be a lengthy process and takes some practice to get it right. See the pasta page for a fresh pasta recipe.

Dried pasta is usually precooked, so it can be put in to the oven dish straight out of the packet.
In the US, pasta sheets generally have a curvy surface. Outside the US, they are almost always flat.
Apart from the plain lasagne sheets, the green ones that Bologna favours are also common. These are called lasagne verdi and are flavored with spinach. They work well with white sauces (bechamels or cream-based sauces and seafood. Source: Lasagne

Learn How To Make Delicious Spinach lasagna