Spinach Lasagna Rollups w/Slow-Simmered Meat & Veggie Sauce

Adapted slightly from For The Love of Food

Years ago, I found a spinach lasagna recipe on Food Network that has since become my go-to lasagna. It is made with meatless sauce, and I honestly prefer it to more traditional meat lasagna.

Recently I came across this recipe, which is similar to my go-to lasagna, but uses homemade meat sauce.  The rollups make for perfect individual servings, which is great for entertaining, and for freezing the leftovers. I was intrigued to give it a try and am glad I did.  These rollups are so good, and I really think the meat sauce is why.  It is so flavorful and really brings out the flavors in the rollup filling.  Certainly you can use your favorite sauce, but I recommend trying it with the slow-simmered meat sauce at least once.  You'll also notice I use cottage cheese in my rollup filling. I'm not a fan of ricotta cheese, but if you are, you can use that instead of the cottage cheese.

Ingredients:

8 lasagna noodles (I use whole wheat)

1 15-oz container of cottage cheese (I use 1% milkfat)

2 cups of baby spinach, rinsed, dried and chopped finely

1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese, (divided) (I use light)

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, (divided)

1 egg or 1/4 cup egg substitute 

2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped finely

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped finely

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Salt and pepper, to taste

Slow-simmered Meat & Veggie Sauce (I use approximately half of what the sauce recipe yields)

Directions:

Preheat the oven 350 degrees.  Cook the lasagna noodles per the box instructions, drain, and place them on parchment paper on a flat surface.

Combine the cottage cheese, spinach, 1/2 cup of mozzarella, 2 tbsp of Parmesan, egg (or egg substitute), basil, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper, to taste, in a large bowl.  Mix until well combined. Spoon a thin layer of the cheese mixture down the entire length of each lasagna noodle. Starting from one end, roll up each noodle onto itself. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray then spoon a layer of the sauce in the bottom of the baking dish. Place the lasagna rolls, seam side down, into the baking dish. Cover each roll with sauce.  Divide the remaining cup of mozzarella cheese and 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese equally on top of each rollup.

Cover with foil; bake for 15 minutes (if your sauce is cold, I would add at least another 5 minutes to this time). Remove the foil and continue baking for another 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Yields:  8 servings