Lasagna Spinach Mushroom Ricotta Sausage Beef

Our Favorite Lasagna With Sausage, Spinach, and Three Cheeses

September 24, 2014

Photo by Charles Masters, Food Styling by Suzanne Lenzer

• Total Time

  1 hour 45 minutes (plus cooling time)

This lasagna recipe has just the right mix of hearty sausage, vibrant spinach, and a perfectly balanced three-cheese blend. With a quick-cooking sauce and no-fuss, no-boil noodles, the assembly is easy, and one pan feeds a large crowd.

If you want to get ahead, the sauce can be prepared up to 2 days in advance and refrigerated. The filling can be prepared up to 1 day in advance and refrigerated.

Ingredients

Makes 8 to 10 servings

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

1 medium onion, chopped

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more to taste

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Two 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes

2 teaspoons dried oregano

For the filling:

Two 15-ounce containers part-skim ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups packed basil leaves

1/2 cup grated Parmesan (about 2 ounces)

2 large egg yolks

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the assembly:

2 10-ounce packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed, or 1 1/2 pounds fresh spinach, steamed

Pinch kosher salt

Vegetable-oil cooking spray

9 no-boil lasagna noodles (such as Barilla)

1 pound fresh mozzarella, grated (about 4 cups)

Special equipment:

9 x 13 x 2-inch baking dish, preferably glass

Preparation:

Step 1

Position the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 375°F.

Make the sauce:

Step 2

In a large pot over medium-high heat, heat the oil. Add the sausage, onion and 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook, breaking up sausage with a wooden spoon, until browned and cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add garlic, red-pepper flakes, and tomato paste; cook, stirring often, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes more. Add tomatoes (along with their juice) and oregano; bring to a simmer, and cook, breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon until in small pieces, about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more red-pepper flakes if desired.

Make the filling:

Step 3

In the bowl of a food processor, combine all of the filling ingredients and process until mostly smooth.

Assemble the lasagna:

Step 4

Squeeze the spinach in a paper towel or clean dishcloth until very dry. Transfer to a bowl and season with a pinch of salt.

Step 5

Coat baking dish with cooking spray and spread the bottom with 2 cups sauce. Top with a layer of three noodles, then a third of the ricotta mixture (about 1 1/3 cups), and a third of the spinach (about 2/3 cup). Sprinkle with 1 cup grated mozzarella.

Step 6

Repeat twice more, skipping the mozzarella on the third layer. Top the lasagna with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle the remaining 2 cups mozzarella in clusters so some of the sauce peeks through.

Step 7

Place the baking pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Lightly spray a piece of foil with cooking spray, cover the lasagna, and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until lightly browned and bubbly, about 20 minutes more. Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

How would you rate Our Favorite Lasagna With Sausage, Spinach, and Three Cheeses?

Reviews (105)

Back to Top

• Excellent recipe! Made this a few times and whomever I make it for just absolutely loves it! I make my own ricotta cheese (cheaper and tastier). I'm going to do the seasoning for my own ground Italian sausage meat this time too! YUM!!!

• Followed as directed first attempt. Second try, a few tweaks: - added onions to browning sausage meat - MORE GARLICCCCC - double-concentrated tomato paste - deglazed with wine (had an open bottle of montepulciano but a lighter red or white would be nice) - only one can of tomatoes so it ain't soupy - wee bit of lemon zest in ricotta mix - realized during assembly that I was out of mozzarella so used white cheddar, parmigiana reggiano and grana padano - sautéed black kale instead of spinach - fresh and dried chillies NO RAGRETS! This is an excellent base recipe which adapts well to your flavour preferences and cupboard ingredients. The key things are sausage, dark greens and ricotta mix. Have fun. "Less Mondays, more Lasagna." (Garfield, n.d.)

• I was looking for a sausage/spinach lasagna recipe to make for Christmas dinner. This is the best lasagna I have ever made. Great recipe. It is the yummiest mix of sauciness and cheesiness. The flavors and textures of all the elements worked beautifully together. I followed the recipe as it is written, except I used a slightly larger pan. I used fresh spinach and a square of kitchen muslin to squeeze out as much water as possible, as the recipe suggests. A 10 out of 10.

• Great lasagna but recipe needs a few easy tweaks. First there is no need to do anything with the spinach if you use fresh spinach. I just layered it in right from the bag. I used about 3/4 of a bag of baby spinach. Also, the recipe forgets to tell you to put sauce in any of the layers except the bottom and the top. I put sauce in each layer. A rectangular casserole dish is not deep enough so you will have less layers. (I did see a deep lasagna glass pan at Target after the fact.) But it is still fine. There are enough ingredients left over to make a small lasagna in a meatloaf glass dish. I just froze the small one for later . I made it for 7 guests and all wanted the recipe to make over the holidays. I have made it twice now . It is great! Mine was not watery at all but I did place it on a cookie sheet while it was baking just in case. I also baked it towards the top of the oven uncovered for the last 20 minutes like it said. This will be my go to recipe from here on out. Don't cook down the sauce too much because you'll want all of it.Enjoy!

• I think it tasted good the way I made it but I found the recipe a little tricky to follow. When I was making the sauce and I moved on to the next step, I assumed I needed to pure the sauce not the list of filling ingredients I had forgotten about at the top of the recipe. It wasn't until I was completely finished putting together all the layers that I realized a few ingredients I had purchased for the recipe were not used. I kind of wish underneath where it says to pure the filling, it added the list of the ingredients that it was referring to. Perhaps I wasn't reading carefully enough but it would have been nice if it had been more clear.

• This was really tasty. My 9x13 was filled to the brim and bubbled over just a little, so recommend placing a tray underneath. Would be good with hot Italian sausage also.

• I love this lasagna. Making is for a cozy Christmas dinner after a more formal Christmas Eve. It is my go-to lasagna. Super yummy!

• I was rushing and ended up putting two big fistfuls of fresh baby spinach in with the ricotta cheese mixture by accident. When I realized what I had done, I went ahead and added the basil, only about half the amount called for in the recipe. I layered with fresh baby spinach and used sliced mozzarella vs. shredded. I also turned off the oven at the end of the cooking time and kept it in a warm oven for about 20 minutes as it looked a bit watery in places (I used a glass dish). The extra spinach was fine and everyone loved the dish.

• This may be the most delicious lasagna I've made, and it makes a lot! Cooked up about 1" above my standard 9x13x2" Pyrex baking dish, a bigger lasagna pan will work better. The basil ground up in the ricotta is a nice touch. Italian sausage is also far superior to ground beef here, IMO.

• We enjoyed this for the lighter tomato sauce rather than my heavier sauce/puree/ paste/red wine version. I have used ground meat but the sausage is nice. The processed cheese smooths easily as another noted. I followed another and used baby spinach and just added in the layering without steaming. It blended in perfectly. We're eating leftovers later this week. This will be my go to lasagna recipe.

• Very good, but for all the work it is to assemble the various components - not worth it.

• I loved this exactly as is. Was not too watery for me, but I finished cooking at 400, maybe that helped. I also liked the smooth texture of processing the ricotta, will do that again, it was also easier to spread that way. Keeping the spinach as its own layer and out of the ricotta mixture seemed to give it more texture and flavor. I used Beyond Meat sausage for vegetarians and it was delicious.

• This is my go-to lasagna recipe now and it always gets rave reviews. I add sautéed portobello mushrooms to the sauce. Otherwise I follow the recipe and it's always fantastic!

• This turned out excellent! I used fresh baby spinach instead of frozen and opted for fresh mozzarella in slices, which distributes nicely. Additions to the sauce included sautéed mushrooms and hot Italian sausage and I used 3/4 the amount of basil. This is my go to recipe now!

• Simple, delicious. Not sure why it was watery for others, mine had an excellent texture. Perfect for a cozy meal and some days worth of leftovers for lunch.

colemanandust.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/our-favorite-lasagna-with-sausage-spinach-and-three-cheeses-51253440

Share this post