Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna

Catherine,

Do you remember that super awesome lasagna we had in Montana? Well, I gave it a go today. I can never make something exactly to the recipe; I end up accidentally omitting an ingredient, adding extra ingredients, or swapping one out for another. This was no different today.

The lasagna I made is a combination of this lasagna recipe and this roasted red pepper recipe. First, what I screwed up and a tip. I forgot to put an egg in my cottage cheese layer. You really shouldn't skip this because it's the binder for the layer; I don't think the accidental omission changed the taste much - just the  cutability. Secondly, I didn't screw up the noodles per se, but I left them in the cooking water after they reached "al dente". They became a sticky mess, and I managed to lightly scald my fingers trying to separate them. Mom has a method to fix this (that I forgot about until I was elbow deep in noodles): add an extra half cup of red sauce so that the noodles can rehydrate while the dish bakes. This works quite well and eliminates a pot to clean, achy fingers, and the frustration of having a noodle beat you at your own game.  Secondly, we had two types of "Italian blends" of shredded cheese. The recipe calls just for Romano, mozzarella, and Parmesan, but who cares. Also, I didn't really measure the cheese super well while layering... I just sprinkled some and kept going.

I divided up separate times that you'll use an ingredient in the list because I have a tendency to throw everything in without looking at when I should do it....

Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna

1 red bell pepper
1/2 tsp olive oil
12 lasagna noodles
2 Tbs olive oil
8 oz container sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 c onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed, peeled, and minced
2 c fresh spinach, roughly chopped
3 c cottage cheese (equals one 24 oz container)
2/3 c Parmesan, grated
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried basil (I used 20 leaves of fresh basil, chopped)
1 egg
3 c mozzarella, shredded
3 c pasta sauce (this is without the extra half cup if you want to use dry noodles)
1 c Parmesan, grated


1) Preheat oven to 500 F.

2) Line baking sheet with foil. Wash bell pepper, dry, stab once with a fork, and cover in olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes, turning once half way through.

3) Remove pepper from oven and seal the foil into a pouch and let sit for 30 minutes. Then peel off charred skin, cut in half, remove seeds and stem, then roughly chop. Set aside.

4) Lower oven temperature to 350 F.

5) Option one: cook noodles according to package directions until al dente. Option two: Don't cook noodles, but don't forget to add an extra 1/2 cup sauce when layering the lasagna.

6) Heat olive oil in 10-12 inch pan over medium high heat. Once the skillet is hot, throw in the mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Cook until onion and mushroom have softened. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Remove from heat. Stir in roasted red pepper. Drain any excess liquid.

7) Combine cottage cheese, Parmesan, salt, oregano, pepper, basil, and egg in a bowl. Stir in sauteed vegetables and stir well.

8) Layer into a greased 9 x 11 in Pyrex pan: (some red sauce first if you're not boiling the noodles) 4 noodles, 1/3 of cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup mozzarella, 1/3 cup Parmesan, and 1 cup pasta sauce (+ 1/3 cup if doing the no boil method). Repeat twice. Sprinkle any leftover Parmesan on top.

9) Cover pan with foil (seal really really well if you're doing no boil method) and bake 60 minutes. (I like to have foil under the pan in case anything boils out.) Take foil off and bake 10 more minutes or until cheese is melted. Let sit 15 minutes before serving.

Tips

It's rather important to wait until your sauteing oil is hot before adding the vegetables. If it's not, they'll just absorb the oil and won't saute up nicely. Meat also cooks up better in oil if you wait until it's hot. Actually, all things cook better in hot oil, so be patient and let it happen.

I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese because it's cheaper. That's another Mom trick for ya.

"2 cups spinach, roughly chopped" was measured by semi-packing spinach into the measuring cup. Next time I'll use 4 cups for sure because it wilts down to such a small amount (and I actually like the taste of spinach). Also, I used curly spinach and removed the main stem....

When cutting herbs, like basil, there's a nice technique to make your life easier. Instead of painfully describing the process to you,  here's a quick video.

Next time, I'll probably add 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes for an added kick.

(Update: Supposedly, the add-an-extra-1/2 cup-pasta-sauce method wasn't the best? Needs some tweaking...)