This feels like a recipe wherein I am cheating. It’s the kind of meal you can make for dinner guests and feel fancy, or that makes a lot of lunches and dinners to go in the freezer or fridge. The recipe is not one I came up with myself (despite the tagging system), but from a graduate school friend of mine. We were having a crafting afternoon wherein she quilted and I knit, and we watched a movie, and then we made dinner together, and it was delightful. She made this recipe, and it was so good, that I begged her to give it to me. It was so good, that I gave it to multiple friends, and ended up losing the original card on which she wrote it out for me. Imagine the awkwardness of emailing her 3 years after we’d last spoken and basically saying, “Hey, what’s up, hope you’re doing well, can you send me that recipe for spinach lasagna because I can’t stop thinking about it?”
Yeah. It was nearly that awkward. But the good news is she gave me the recipe. And when, after Christmas, I volunteered to host my parents, grandma, and Ben and Nicole in addition to the Boy and girls for dinner, I thought this would be the perfect recipe. It was – we had had no Italian or Italian-esque foods in the days prior. It came together pretty fast, so despite my still being in the cooking process when they came, it was ready to eat in a little over an hour (this also accounts for the lack of pictures – I started to make it, and then forgot to photograph the process, and then it was nearly over. Whoops). It’s fairly simple (note that in the recipe below, shredded mozzarella cheese and grated parmesan are listed twice, since they go on the top of the lasagna at the end), and requires no fancy kitchen implements. Also – it contains more veggies, and no meat, which is good when you’re kind of meated-out from whatever. And people seem to like it. A lot. Every time I make it, people are like, “Wow, this is super good”. And in this chilly time of year, something warm that’s easy to make that gives you lots of awesome leftovers is always a winner.
Also – it doubles easily, as you can see. If you’re more than one person, or serving a party. Double might be the way to go.
Spinach Lasagna
Yield: 1 9×13 pan of lasagna. This serves about 9.
Ingredients
2 cups cottage cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 (10 oz) package frozen spinach
2 eggs, well beaten
1 (26 oz) jar pasta sauce
9 lasagna noodles, cooked (OR buy the no-bake lasagna noodles, which are great for lazy people like me)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350. Combine cottage cheese, 2 cups mozzarella, and 1/2 cup parmesan in a bowl. Heat up the spinach in the microwave, add to the cheese mixture and mix well. Add eggs and mix well.
Spread about 3/4 cup of the pasta sauce in a 9×13 baking dish. Alternate layers of 3 lasagna noodles, spinach mix, and sauce until all ingredients are used, ending with sauce. Top with 1 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.
Bake for 45 minutes, and let stand for about 10-15 minutes before serving.
Refrigerate leftovers as soon as possible. They will keep for about a week in the fridge.
It was delicious!!