Tuesday, April 26, 2011

{Tasty Tuesday: Spinach-Turkey Lasagna Rolls}

You can't go wrong with warm, tomatoey, Italian, saucy, cheesy, garlicy goodness in
a 13x9 pan. You just can't. Add a simple salad, and you're a household hero.

Each lasagna noodle in this dish is it's own individual roll. That made it super easy to do
half of them with meat (for David) and half of them without meat (for me). Love that.



I adapted the original recipe from Kim's blog and included the changes I made
below in case you run into an Italian food craving that must be satisfied.

Note - I used dried seasonings for this because that's all I had on hand, but you could step
it up a notch with the fresh stuff. Also, I'll add sauteed mushrooms next time for depth.

INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs. lean ground turkey, browned and seasoned
2 10-oz. pkgs chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
7 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
8 oz. low fat cottage cheese
2 c. grated Italian cheeses
1 egg
4 garlic cloves, minced
plenty of salt and pepper
plenty of Italian seasoning (in meat and cheese mixture)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano, rubbed between fingers to open up flavors
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 box of whole wheat lasagna noodles
1/2 box of regular lasagna noodles
1 c. grated asiago cheese
1 1/2 jars of your favorite marinara sauce (Note: Better quality sauce = better flavor.)

WHAT TO DO WITH THEM:
Cook the lasagna noodles in salted water and EVOO until al dente. Drain. Separate
noodles by laying them out on a cookie sheet so they don't stick together.

In a large saute pan, brown the ground turkey. Season with minced garlic, salt,
pepper, and Italian seasoning (or the fresh equivalent).

In a bowl, mix spinach, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, Italian cheeses, egg, garlic,
salt, pepper, more Italian seasoning, oregano, red pepper flakes. Set aside.

In the bottom of your 13 x 9 dish, spread 1/2 to 3/4 of a jar of sauce and sprinkle
some Asiago cheese.

(If you want some of these to be without meat, make those first. Then, add the
meat to the remaining cheese mixture and roll up the rest of them. If you want
meat in all of them, combine the meat into the cheese now.)

Spread 3-5 tablespoons of filling all the way across one side of each lasagna noodle.
Use more of less filling depending on what size you want. Roll up each noodle and
place in the dish seam side down.

Top with the rest of the first jar and half of the second jar of marinara sauce. Then,
generously cover with more cheese -- Asiago and shredded Italian. Add more seasoning
to the top if you think you need it.

Bake at 350° for 60 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and dish is heated through.


If this recipe looks good to you, you might also like:

For more Tasty Tuesday ideas, click here:

3 comments:

alissa {33shadesofgreen} said...

Yum Samara! Your lasagna rolls look delicious. And of course your photos are gorgeous. I completely agree with the first sentence of your post. So true!

Kristi said...

These are GENIUS!!! Love it

Wendy said...

This looks yummy!! Thanks for sharing this recipe.