Mushroom and Spinach Lasagna

As you are well aware, lasagna has a few components. It’s a very complicated dish, dear reader. A lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous. A lot of strands to keep in one’s head. Not really. It’s just a lot of layers. Pasta, tomato sauce, ricotta mixture, cheese and whatever other fillings – in this case it’s reconstituted dried mushrooms and steamed, chopped spinach.

In an effort to skip a step, I use no-boil lasagna noodles. These fellas are much thinner than your usual lasagna noodle, and often times they come without that fancy-pants ruffle, which is fine by me. Who needs a high maintenance lasagna noodle? Instead, no-boil lasagna noodles have ridges, like a potato chip or corrugated steel. Do you see corrugated steel asking for its own pot of boiling water? No, dear reader. You do not.

In the end, this lasagna is relatively low on fat and high on vegetation. Hits the spot for when you absolutely need a vegetable dish and a salad isn’t going to cut the mustard. Hearty, warm and unctuous without the heaviness of beef and Bechemel sauce (which are great, but sometimes you want lean).

Just FYI, BTW, Yankee Cook’s been kicking it into high gear these past two weeks while I’m on vacation (3 posts in two weeks! yay!) in an effort to make up for that long stretch from August to December when I didn’t post a thing. That was a sad, sad time. I’ve missed you! Expect to see more slow cooker recipes coming up. I have a lemon chicken soup in the works. Hopefully that will be up next week so check back.

Update on the Lemon Chicken Soup (1/18/2012): Two attempts now. I’m going to have to wait a while more to post that one because there’s only so much Lemon Chicken Soup one can attempt in a month.

Mushroom Spinach Lasagna – serves 6
1 cup fresh water (to steam the spinach)
1 lb baby spinach
2 cups dried mushrooms – chanterelles, shiitake, porcini and trumpets are nice
2 cups boiling water (to rehydrate the mushrooms)
2 lb part-skim ricotta (the big tub)
1/2 cup  grated Parmesan cheese
salt to taste
2 eggs
1 T capers (optional)
12 sheets of no-boil lasagna noodles (or 6 sheets 3 on each layer in a smaller pan)
4 cups of your favorite tomato sauce (like the one on this page)
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella, diced
spray canola oil

1.) Bring the 1 cup of water to a boil in a large stockpot. Add the spinach in a steamer basket if you have one. Cover and allow to steam 10-12 minutes until the spinach is thoroughly embarrassed. Remove the spinach from heat and allow to cool. Once cooled, press out the excess liquid and finely chop.

2.) Meanwhile, place mushrooms in a heatproof bowl (one that won’t melt for give off BPAs if it gets hot). Pour the 2 cups of boiling water over the mushrooms and allow them to soak for 15 minutes. Drain the mushrooms and dice.

3.) Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

4.) Combine the ricotta and Parmesan cheese. Salt to taste. Add eggs and mix until smooth. Stir in capers, if desired.

5.) Dice the mozzarella.

6.) Make a layer of half of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a 13×9 inch lasagna dish. Arrange 4 lasagna sheets on top. They’ll be a little short, but it’s okay. They’ll expand as they absorb moisture.

7.) Spread a layer of half of the ricotta over the lasagna sheets, then all of the spinach

8.) Top the spinach layer with more 4 more lasagna sheets, the rest of the ricotta, the mushrooms and the last 4 sheets.

9.) Top with the rest of the tomato sauce and the diced mozzarella.

10.) Spray a sheet of aluminum foil the size of the lasagna pan with spray canola oil. This way it doesn’t stick to the cheese . Be sure to not spray where the handles are or it might slip out of your hand when you take it out of the oven and get all over the floor, ruin your outfit and possibly burn and that would just be tragic).

11.) Loosely cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven, remove the foil and allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.