Mom’s Spinach Lasagna

This is a pretty simple recipe, but it’s delicious and worth the time.  You don’t need a whole lot to make this lasagna; here’s everything it takes (don’t worry, you’ll get the recipe at the end of this post):

mise en place

To start this lasagna, you need to cook some lasagna noodles.  You’ll need nine, but there’s always at least one that gets messed up, so cook at least ten noodles.  Also, make sure you cook the noodles al dente because they’ll soften a little when you bake the lasagna.

While the noodles are cooking, you can mix together the ingredients for the main filling.  You start with a 16oz. container of small curd cottage cheese, then add a package of frozen chopped spinach (microwaved for 5 minutes and dried with paper towels).  After that, add one egg and a sprinkling of garlic powder and just a pinch of ground nutmeg.

cottage cheese spinach added egg added spices added

Once you mix all those ingredients together, you get the main filling for the spinach lasagna.  I know, it’s not the prettiest thing to look at, but it tastes great when it’s all done.

filling

As a side note, if you ignore the puppies after getting home and go straight to making dinner, you get this:

charlotte

She really wanted to have a tummy rub.  And yes, she got it. :-)

By now (well, if you’re taking pictures of everything) the noodles are done and it’s time to start building the lasagna.  To start, you make a thin layer of pasta sauce on the bottom of the pan, followed by the first three noodles and a little more sauce.

sauce first noodles

Spread half the filling on this first noodle layer to get this:

filling layer 1

After the filling, put down some of the mozzarella and parmesan.  Then you repeat this to place the next layer of noodles, sauce, the rest of the filling, and cheese.  The final layer is the last three noodles, more sauce and the rest of the cheese.

layer 1 layer 2

Then you cook the lasagna in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes (with a couple minutes under the broiler at the end for some nice browning) and you get this delicious dinner.

cooked lasagna

sliced

It tastes even better than it looks.

Here’s the recipe for the lasagna as given to me by my mom:


Ingredients:

9 cooked lasagna noodles
Spaghetti Sauce (large can)
Shredded Mozzarella
Parmesan Cheese
Frozen Chopped Spinach (1 block)
Small Curd Cottage Cheese (16 oz.)
1 Egg
Garlic Powder
Ground Nutmeg


Directions:

While noodles are cooking, microwave the frozen spinach for five minutes.  Drain between paper towels and mix in with cottage cheese, egg, garlic powder and nutmeg to make the filling.  After noodles are cooked, spoon a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 pan and place three noodles on the sauce.  Spoon sauce over noodles, followed by half the filling mixture and one-third of the cheeses.  Make the second layer with noodles, sauce, filling and cheeses.  The final layer is the last three noodles, the rest of the sauce and the remaining cheese.
Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  If desired, brown the top by broiling for a few minutes.

The final step: Enjoy!