Meat and Cheese Lasagna with Spinach

I love lasagna.

I make it differently every time - with meatballs, a very veggie version, white lasagna with chicken...As mentioned before, I made lasagna for a few sets of friends who have recently become parents. I kept this version more straight-forward, since I wasn't extremely knowledgeable of my friends' food tastes. I made sure to pack lots of protein from the meat and cheese, and added the spinach for an extra hit of iron. New moms need lots of energy and nutrients!


Meat and Cheese Lasagna with Spinach
Original recipe

Note: I used a 9x13-inch lasagna pan - the extra deep, one-use kind found at the supermarket.

Meat Layer:
1 small onion, chopped
4 oz mushrooms, chopped
olive oil
1 slice of hearty white bread
1 Tbs milk
1 lb ground beef

Cheese Layer:
1 small carton of part-skim ricotta cheese
12 oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water
12oz mozarella cheese

Sauce:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs tomato paste
1 jar marinara sauce
2 tsp dried oregano

Box of lasagna noodles
2/3 c grated parmesan cheese


For the meat layer:
Heat a few Tbs of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and mushrooms, and sauté until the onions are soft. Meanwhile, place bread and milk in a food processor with a metal blade. Pulse until bread has been finely ground. Add ground beef, and pulse until meat and bread are combined. Add beef mixture to the skillet, and cook until browned.

For the cheese layer:
Mix the ricotta cheese and spinach until well combined.

For the sauce:
Heat 1 Tbs olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add marinara sauce and oregano, reduce heat to low, and simmer until heated through.

For the noodles:
Cook lasagna noodles in batches in boiling water. Cook until al dente – about 7 minutes. I found that 5 noodles were required for each layer in a 9x13 inch pan.

To assemble the lasagna:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread a teeny amount of sauce on the bottom of the baking pan – just enough to coat the pan with a thin layer. Arrange lasagna noodles in an even layer in the pan, trimming noodles as necessary.

Spread meat mixture evenly over the noodles. Pour about 1 ½ c sauce over the meat mixture. Cover with a layer of noodles.

Spread the ricotta mixture evenly over the noodles. Sprinkle half the mozzarella cheese over the ricotta. Cover with a layer of noodles.

Spread the remaining sauce over the top layer of noodles. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella over the sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Cover pan with foil. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove foil and return lasagna to the oven for another 5 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven, and let lasagna rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.