Twice As Nice

Since I am now officially on Christmas Vacation (YES!!!) I thought I would go ahead and post about tonight's dinner. Tomorrow will be filled with laundry, gift wrapping, and more cooking, so best to get it done before I forget. Tonight's meal is another one made in duplicate for the new mommy & daddy. For some reason last night I kept dreaming about this dish. That has never happened to me before, but I actually had several dreams through the course of the night that involved Spinach Lasagna. Every time I awoke from a dream I'd think to myself, "Oh yeah, I'm making Spinach Lasagna tomorrow night." When I got up this morning it was to the point that I was almost feeling hesitant about the evening's meal. It seemed like dreaming about lasagna couldn't be a good thing. Opposite to all foreboding the meal came together very easily. I was a little low on cheese, so I put together the dish for the freezer first. Wouldn't want to stiff the new parents on mozzarella. I had enough cheese in the end, as you know lasagna is so overly cheesy it wasn't a real problem being just a smidge low on it. This was really so easy I'm wondering why I hadn't been making two at a time all along, and saving myself twice the effort for two meals. Obviously this is isn't the first time that I've posted about the Spinach Lasagna, but this being such a fast, easy and healthy recipe I figured it definitely worth re-posting at this most hectic and indulgent time of year.

Spinach Lasagna
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 8












4 cups (32 oz.) whole-milk ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
Salt and fresh ground pepper
2 10 oz. packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove excess moisture
6 cups store-bought or homemade tomato sauce
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
1 lb. (4 cups) fontina cheese, shredded

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together ricotta cheese, eggs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add spinach, and stir well to combine.
• Spread a small bit of tomato sauce in the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish or dishes. Arrange a layer of lasagna noodles on top. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over the noodles, followed by 1/3 of the remaining sauce; sprinkle with 1/3 of the grated cheese. Repeat to make two more layers, ending with cheese. If freezing, cover tightly with plastic wrap. Before baking, defrost in the refrigerator overnight.
• Cover with aluminum foil. Bake 30 minutes. Remove foil; continue baking until top is golden brown, about 15 minutes more. Let cool slightly before serving.

My notes: I always use part-skim ricotta, mozzarella in place of the fontina, and top it off with a little parmesan for good measure. I've been using aluminum 8" square pans for all the freezer goodies I've been packing, and with this recipe it was a little shallow, and a little weak. If using one of these yourself to freeze your second batch then I would suggest that you go a little thinner with your sauce. In my written directions to the couple I also suggested putting it on a baking sheet to cook, in case of any spill over. It was also a little harder to wrap the plastic wrap all the way around the pan, since it was very full and a little weighty, but I managed. Just an fyi to be careful. Or use something better than a slightly shallow aluminum pan, ha. Also, each 8" pan should serve four, but I can easily get 6 servings out of it.