These Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups are a twist on the traditional and just as much fun to make as they are to eat!
Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups are meat-free, with perfectly al dente lasagna sheets rolled around a creamy ricotta and spinach filling, topped with a zesty red pepper tomato sauce.
They’re vegetarian, freeze like champs, are fun to make with kids, and (the best part) are ready in under half an hour. It’s also a super versatile and totally amenable dish, and works with whatever you got going on in your kitchen right now.
For example, you can easily switch out kale for spinach, or add ground beef to the sauce if you’re not vegetarian. Feel free to have fun with this dish; it’s only a handful of ingredients (8 total!) and extremely forgiving.
You might be wondering why the lasagna sheets are rolled up instead of layered, as you do with a traditional lasagna. The biggest benefit of rolls is that they make a perfect little serving size. One roll=one serving! This also means these spinach lasagna roll-ups are a total rockstar freezer meal. You can freeze as much or as little as you want at one time.
Smaller freezer meals defrost faster and are perfect for solo dinners or lunches. I put four spinach lasagna roll-ups in a disposable loaf pan and froze them for one week, and they defrosted beautifully and were the perfect thing to eat with my kids one night when my husband was out of town.
And kids will love rolling them up, too. I enlisted my three-year-old for help and she was surprisingly adept at rolling. I lined up the cooked lasagna sheets on the counter, spread the ricotta and spinach filling in each one, and let her go to town. She made an enormous mess, but like I said; this is a forgiving dish. Her rolls worked perfectly no matter how messy they were.
In any case, it’s a weeknight-friendly, freezer-awesome, kid-friendly, delicious dish and I hope you love it.
Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups
Ingredients
- 12-14 lasagna sheets
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion , diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 red bell pepper , ribs and seeds removed, finely minced
- 12 oz frozen chopped spinach (about 2 cups)
- 6 oz canned tomato paste
- 16 oz canned crushed tomatoes
- 1 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed pepper
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mild cheese , such as pepperjack or meunster
Instructions
- Fill a large pot with water, cover, and set over high heat. When the water is boiling, add the lasagna sheets and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes. When the lasagna sheets are done cooking, drain and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350*F.
- While the lasagna sheets are cooking, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan until shimmering. Add the onions, bell peppers and 1 cup of spinach and stir to mix, cooking until the onions have started to cook through and soften, about 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine, then add the crushed tomatoes. Turn the heat to low and let the sauce cook and thicken while you prepare the rest of the lasagna, about 10 minutes. Stir the sauce often to keep from burning on the bottom of the pan.
- While the sauce is cooking, combine the ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, egg, and salt and pepper in a large bowl and whisk until the ricotta is smooth. Fold in the spinach.
- Lay the lasagna sheets out side by side on a clean counter or sheet pan. Remove the sauce from the stovetop and add 1/2 cup of sauce to the bottom of a 7″x7″ or 7″x5″ ovenproof baking dish, spreading evenly. Spread 1-2 tablespoons of ricotta mixture onto each lasagna sheet and roll from bottom to top. As each sheet is rolled around the ricotta mixture, place it upright in the baking dish on top of the sauce. The curls of each roll should be facing upwards. Add the rolls, side by side and one at a time, until all the sheets have been stuffed and rolled.
- Pour the remaining tomato sauce on top of the rolls, using a spoon to gently push some sauce down into each roll. Top the dish evenly with the shredded cheese.
- Bake the lasagna rolls for 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and it is starting to bubble. Remove from the oven and serve hot.
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