This easy, hearty homemade lasagna recipe, Fresh Spinach Lasagna, uses rich layers of fresh spinach, ricotta cheese, tomato-meat sauce and lots of mozzarella.
How to Make Easy Fresh Spinach Lasagna Recipe
Lasagna is one of those versatile dishes that can feed a small family or a crowd. It’s just a matter of doubling the ingredients.
And the secret to making great lasagna is getting the proportions of ricotta, tomato sauce and mozzarella just right. So what’s stopping you from making lasagna tonight? I’ll show you how!
Lasagna Ingredients
The best way to make lasagna is to start with the freshest ingredients.
I’ve assembled the following: fresh organic spinach, tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, mozzarella and a couple of farm fresh eggs.
DID YOU KNOW? You can substitute small curd cottage cheese or even soft goat cheese for ricotta in this recipe.
For the Noodles
For this recipe, I’m using regular Creamette Lasagna noodles. You can, however, use the precooked variety.
For the regular lasagna noodles, it only takes minimal time to par-cook the noodles.
Start with salted water. I used a teaspoon of salt. You may think it’s a lot of salt but these are large noodles.
Once the water is boiling, add your noodles. I used the whole box but in actuality, I only needed about one-half of them. The rest I used for another recipe.
RELATED: Baked Penne Pasta with Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomatoes Recipe
As mentioned above, you will only be par-cooking your noodles for about 8 minutes. No more. No less.
The noodles should have some firm spots still to be cooked through. That is what you want, because they will finish up cooking in the oven later.
For the Filling
While you’re waiting for the noodles to cook, you can go ahead and make the filling.
I normally use one 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese, 16 ounces mozzarella, 2 cups (or in my case, 2 large handfuls) of fresh spinach and 2 eggs.
I believe that the eggs make all the difference. It makes the filling nice and creamy, so don’t pass on this step.
DID YOU KNOW? You can make this recipe vegetarian or meatless by omitting the ground beef. It will be just as delicious and you won’t miss the beef!
My tomato sauce of choice is RAO’s Homemade Tomato and Basil Sauce, but you can use any variety of tomato sauce that you like. You will need approximately 24 ounces for this recipe.
Assemble the Lasagna
I like to set up a station with everything I will need to create my lasagna. You can see how hot the noodles are. That’s what you want. Just use tongs to remove the noodles from the water.
Before first putting in the sauce, I spray the baking dish with non-stick spray.
Next comes the noodles and then the ricotta-spinach mixture.
Then I add ground beef.
Top with more sauce, then repeat, noodles, ricotta, and ground beef, etc. until you get to the top of your baking dish.
When you get to the brim of the baking dish, trim any overhanging noodles with a kitchen shears.
Finally, top with mozzarella cheese.
The baking dish with Fresh Spinach Lasagna gets placed in a preheated 375 degree F oven, with an oversized baking sheet underneath to catch any drippings. Let the Lasagna cook for 50 minutes, or until the cheesy top is lightly browned.
Remove it from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Fresh Spinach Lasagna Recipe
Ingredients
For the Noodles
- 1 lb Lasagna Noodles regular
For the Filling
- 16 oz mozzarella cheese shredded
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 24 oz tomato sauce
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1.5 lb ground beef
- 1 cup mushrooms optional
- nonstick spray
Instructions
For the Noodles
- Boil the lasagna noodles per instructions on packaging. Be sure to add 2 teaspoons of salt to the water.
For the Filling
- While the noodles are cooking, make the ricotta mixture.
- In a bowl, add the ricotta, eggs, spinach, 3 cups of cheese, and garlic powder.
- Brown the ground beef and set aside.
Assemble the Lasagna
- Spray the baking dish with non-stick spray.
- Ladle in a layer of tomato sauce.
- Add noodles one by one, side by side. If you need to, you can trim them back to fit snugly in baking dish.
- Spoon ricotta mixture and spread it across the noodles.
- If you cooked up ground beef, you can sprinkle it on top of the ricotta mixture.
- To this, add another ladle of tomato sauce and repeat the layers until you either run out of ingredients or you “top” the baking dish.
- With the final layer, add the two cups of mozzarella generously over your lasagna.
- Place the baking dish on a cookie sheet to catch the drippings.
- Bake in a preheated 375 degree F oven for 45-50 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.
- Once cooked through, remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Slice and serve. Enjoy!
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