I make lasagnas at least once a year, and make enough to have it several times. This time, I made it as roll ups and loved how beautifully portioned it was! I made 1- 9×12 lasagna and 2- 9×9 pans of lasagna rolls. One dish of lasagna rolls got slated to my very awesome friend who is now a mom of infant twins with 2 bigger boys. The fam could prob could use freezer food, right?
I made my own pasta this time too! It was so easy since it only takes the rolling on my Kitchenaid, and no cutting. I cleared a ton of room on the kitchen island and spread these out. I rolled the dough on the mixer, cut them a bit, cooked them, and then let them cool enough for the filling. I’ll totally make my own again!
Here are my other lasagnas, if rolls aren’t your thing: Traditional Lasagna or Lasagna Soup or Butternut Squash Lasagna or White Lasagna w/ Chicken & Spinach.
Ingredients:
1 pound lasagna noodles, cooked (not the “no-cook” or “oven-ready” variety this time)
8 oz ricotta
1 egg
1/3 cup chopped Parsley, Oregano, Basil or Arugula
1 cup mozzarella
~1 1/2 cups ground meat (optional)
1 cup tomato sauce (I like Pastene Kitchen Ready Tomatoes + a tablespoon of tomato paste + tablespoon Italian Seasoning)
(additional sprinkle of cheese after it bakes)
Directions:
Prep the meat, cooking through and seasoning with salt & pepper if including meat. Mix together the ricotta, egg, and herbs.
Lay out the pasta and spread the ricotta & herb mixture and top with mozzarella & meat mixture. Be sure to get the filling spread pretty evenly in a thin layer.
Add on the cooked ground meat, if using any.
Gently roll up from one end to the other. Aim for each roll to be about 2 inches high, any bigger and it’ll be a massive serving. Then place into a baking dish sprayed with nonstick spray.
Top with sauce and freeze (or bake to eat right away).
When serving, bake frozen lasagna rolls for 75 minutes at 350, adding additional cheese on the top for the last 5 minutes. Or let lasagna rolls defrost over night, or for 24 hours and then bake for 45 minutes with cheese for the last 5 minutes.
The pan I’ll bring to my friend was in a disposable heavy-duty pan. I topped it with sauce and covered it in plastic wrap. It has a plastic cover where I labeled what it is with heating instructions but that flimsy plastic cover isn’t great in the freezer, thus, why I go with plastic wrap. I gave more instructions than necessary, but hey- nobody wants a baked plastic-wrap fiasco when getting dinner ready for the little ones! Here are other food ideas to bring to parents of a newborn.
I seriously love lasagna, so I was very happy with these cheesy lasagna rolls. I’m the biggest lasagna fan in the house, so I was probably more into them than anyone else. Plus, we had just had regular lasagna a few weeks prior. I tried to spread ’em out, but I also attempt to have at least 1 meal per week that is from a freezer stockpile of batch-cooking. I believe there’s also a chicken pot pie hanging out just waiting on me to call it into the line up!
Yesss, there’s seriously not much better than having a lasagna in the freezer!! I love the idea of these lasagna rolls 🙂