CJ’s Lasagna Rolls

This is just a quick post of a recipe I cobbled together for dinner that the family seemed to like: lasagna rolls.

The sauce was your basic 1 jar of Ragu plus 1 jar of Prego with about a third of a cup of Merlot added.

The basic cheese filling was about 20oz of ricotta combined with 7.5oz of frozen spinach (from a 10oz package…thawed, squeezed until dry, and then chopped), a cup of finely grated Parmesano Regiano, and about an 1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg.

The veggie filling was made of 2 small zucchini, small diced; six small portobello mushrooms, gilled and diced; eight (or so) sun-dried tomatoes, chopped; 1/3 grated carrot; 1 clove minced garlic; and the remaining 2.5oz of spinach. First the zucchini were placed in a medium-high pan with some EVOO, sprinkled with salt and white pepper, and cooked until starting to soften. The garlic, mushrooms, and sun dried tomatoes were added along with about 1/4-1/3 cup of merlot. These were cooked until tender and set aside. When cooled, the mixture was combined with the carrot and spinach.

The meat filling was very simple: 1.25 lb ground beef + 1 mild Italian sausage; browned in a pan.

While this is going on, a box of lasagna noodles is cooked and then immersed in ice water to stop the cooking. this recipe only used 11 noodles, but several broke, so make extra.

To assemble the rolls, first coat the bottle of a glass baking dish with some of the sauce to keep the rolls from sticking. Sprinkle a little shredded mozzarella just for color (don’t use fresh mozzarella…it’s too moist). On a lasagna noodle, place about 2 tablespoons of the cheese filling and spread it out with your fingers to thinly cover the noodle, leaving about an inch at one end. Next place a thin layer of either the veggie or meat filling on top of the cheese filling. Starting at the covered end of the noodle, gently roll up this package toward the uncoated end of the noodle, and then place the roll in the baking dish.

When the baking dish is filled to satisfaction, spoon over sauce to cover each roll (don’t drown them, just cover), sprinkle on mozzarella and grated Parmesan, and place in a 425oF oven for about 20 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese melted. Serve.