Mushroom & Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups

So, do you want the bad news or the good news first?

The bad news is that Italian home-style cooking would not be considered very clean eating.  Lasagna is typically a heavy, carb (40g!!!) and calorie (upwards of 900!!!) dense meal that I basically only enjoy through osmosis.  (The osmosis of licking a picture on the Olive Garden menu – I swear I gain 5 lbs. just looking at it.)  So, yeah.

The good news is, this recipe is a much lighter version of a traditional lasagna.  In fact, based on my calculations this recipe is around 400 calories a serving, but 47 g of carbs.  So while it’s still a carb dense meal and certainly not what I would consider clean, the calories make it a much more reasonable “not so clean day” option.

The cool thing about lasagnas are that you can kind of do your own thing with the filling – whatever you are in the mood for or whatever you have on hand works.  I’ve also made a Ham, Spinach, & Ricotta Lasagna Roll-Up here before. This particular recipe is an oldie but a goodie, with infinite variations.  The original post had HORRIBLE pictures, taken when I was cooking by lamplight (Yes, I had a table lamp on my stove and that was the only light in the kitchen!), so I thought it could use a good update.

Mushroom & Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups

• lasagna noodles (NOT the oven-ready kind)
• 8 oz. box frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (or fresh, wilted)
• 8 oz. mushrooms of your choice, sliced thin
• 15 oz. part-skim ricotta
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• pasta sauce
• salt & pepper
• shredded mozzarella or Parmesean

Cook the lasagna noodles al dente (10 min) and then spread them out to cool slightly.  I used a kitchen towel and paper towels for this:

While all that jazz is happening, you can make the stuffings.  Brown the mushrooms in 1 T. olive oil.  Salt & pepper them, then add in half a cup of pasta sauce.  Simmer for about 2 minutes and then set aside.

Also, mix together the spinach, ricotta, egg, and a little more salt and pepper.

Pretty easy so far, right?

Once the noodles are soft enough for you to work with, place about 2 T. of the ricotta mixture on each noodle, then top with 1-1/2 T. of the mushroom mixture.

Then, just roll them up!  I put mine in a casserole dish that has a layer of pasta sauce on the bottom to prevent sticking.

You could do a few things here:  Put it in the fridge until you are ready to cook, probably freeze, or top with sauce and cheese and bake those em-effers at 375F.

I clearly chose the em-effers option.  We don’t like a lot of sauce with our pasta in this house, but have at it (just remember that jarred pasta sauce is super high in sugar!) with your favorite sauce and cheese of choice.  I just barely sprinkled some Mozzarella on ours because the ricotta is cheesy enough!  Cover the casserole dish(es) loosely in tin foil and bake for 45 minutes at 375F.  Then, remove the foil and bake for 15 more minutes.

As you can tell, its really easy to keep your portions (2-3 roll ups) under control with this recipe because you scoop out one roll-up at a time.  I made the whole box of pasta (17 roll-ups) because we are in dire need of lunch options at our house, so we will be eating leftovers for days!