Cooking with Pinterest

Once again I am sharing a recipe I've tried from Pinterest. This one is lasagna roll-ups. I really, really, really love lasagna but it is a pain to make. This recipe promised to be easier and just as good. It didn't really seem to take any less time but it did taste pretty good. Serving it was easier in my opinion.

What you'll need:

• 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1/2 lb lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
• 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes (I used a jar of Classico Tomato Basil sauce instead. It was on sale at Publix)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 Tbsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 (15 oz) container Ricotta Cheese
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup fresh flat leaf parsley (aka Italian Parsley, its about 1 small handful), chopped
• 2 1/4 cups freshly grated Mozzarella Cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup freshly, finely grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
• 1/3 cup freshly, finely grated Romano Cheese
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 12 uncooked lasagna noodles

What to do:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Add one tablespoon olive oil into a large non-stick fry pan. Heat over medium high heat, crumble ground beef over oil, add chopped onions and cook mixture stirring occasionally and breaking up meat, until browned. Drain fat from beef. Pour beef mixture into a food processor and pulse for about 5 seconds until it is ground into fine pieces. Pour beef mixture back into fry pan and add crushed tomatoes (I poured in my jarred sauce), minced garlic, basil, oregano and 1 tablespoon olive oil and stir. Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste then cover with a lid and simmer over low heat while preparing pasta and cheese mixture.

 

Cook lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water according to package directions. Once noodles are cooked, drain and immediately line noodles in a single layer on waxed paper.  

 

Prepare cheese mixture (I did this while pasta is cooking) stir together ricotta cheese, egg, salt and pepper with a fork in a large mixing bowl until well combine. Stir in chopped fresh parsley. Add grated Mozzarella Cheese,  Parmesan Cheese and  Romano Cheese, stir mixture until well combine.

 

Stir meat sauce and spread 1/3 cup evenly into a 13x9 inch baking dish by tilting pan back and forth. Spread 1/4 cup cheese mixture evenly onto each cooked lasagna noodle, then spread 1 heaping tablespoon meat sauce along the top of the cheese. Roll noodles up jellyroll style and arrange seam side down in baking dish. Cover rolled noodles with remaining meat sauce then sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese evenly over roll ups. Tent lasagna roll ups with foil (don't allow foil to rest on cheese or it will stick you just want to loosely tent to prevent the cheese from browning) and bake for 35 minutes in preheated oven.

 

Image: http://www.cookingclassy.com/2012/02/lasagna-roll-ups/

 

It was delicious! I see us making this again in the future. We added a salad and garlic bread  for a complete meal. I probablly will try making the actual sauce next time instead of using a jar but the jar was so easy! As I said earlier, serving was really easy. You can see exactly where each noodle is.

 

Tonight, I'm trying crock pot french dip sandwiches so that will probably be my next review.