This spinach and ricotta lasagne is a great favourite of mine. It isn’t really too time consuming but I like to take my time over it because it’s a therapeutic dish to make.
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This lasagne ALWAYS works – unlike with meat lasagne where your sauce might be too runny, or your meat too dry. The making of the spinach and tomato part is too easy to worry about, and the ‘sauce’ part – the ricotta mix – is 100 times easier than the traditional bechamel.
It uses those wonderful ingredients, spinach, ricotta and a hefty dose of nutmeg, that always work together and make for an incredibly comforting meal.
Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne – The Ingredients
- Onion – use a large white or yellow onion. Red or salad onions won’t work here.
- Spinach – 500g might seem like a lot of fresh spinach (and when it’s in your fridge, it will certainly feel that way!) But trust me, this is the perfect amount of spinach for this lasagne when it’s wilted down.
- Nutmeg – ground nutmeg works great here. If you have whole nutmeg, grate a teaspoonful.
- Creme fraiche – adds a creamy element when mixed with the ricotta.
- Ricotta – the star ingredient! I often get comments asking if this can be swapped for mascarpone. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t advise that. The two cheeses have very different textures and mascarpone wouldn’t work here.
- Egg – the egg helps to bind the ricotta sauce and enables it to set a little on top.
- Lasagne sheets – I always recommend using fresh lasagne sheets for this lasagne – and many of my vegetarian lasagnes. The reason is simple – the cooking time doesn’t need to be as long, so fresh lasagne sheets with their shorter cooking time work perfectly. You could use dried lasagne sheets, but you’ll need to cook it for 15 more minutes. Cover the top with tin foil if you choose to do this.
- Cherry tomatoes – add a nice burst of freshness and sweetness throughout the lasagne. You could also use plum tomatoes.
- Parmigiano reggiano – or parmesan, if you don’t need to make this vegetarian. Any hard cheese will do.
Cooking tips
Here are my tips for making this a success:
- When layering, make sure you leave enough of the ricotta mix to fully cover the top for the last layer. You don’t want a gappy top!
- If the top is still a bit pale after 30 minutes, just give it a few minutes longer. You want a nice golden glow.
- Leftovers are amazing cold the next day!
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Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne
Save This RecipeIngredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 500 g fresh spinach
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 300 ml creme fraiche
- 500 g ricotta
- 1 egg
- 200 g fresh lasagne sheets
- 250 g cherry tomatoes
- 20 g parmigiano reggiano
Instructions
- Chop the onion and add to a saucepan with the olive oil. Saute over a medium heat for a couple of minutes, then add the spinach (you’ll need to do this bit by bit!) and stir until it has all wilted. Stir in the nutmeg, and season. Leave to sit in the saucepan, off the heat.
- Put the creme fraiche, ricotta and egg into a large bowl and beat until well combined. Seson with salt and plenty of black pepper.
- Half the cherry tomatoes.
- Drain any excess liquid from the spinach, and you can start layering your lasagne.
- In a large ovenproof dish, layer your ingredients. Half the spinach, half the tomato, one third of the lasagne sheets, half the ricotta mix, one third of the lasagne sheets, the remaining spinach, the remaining tomato, the remaining lasagne sheets, the remaining ricotta mix. Make sure you top with the ricotta!
- Top with grated parmigiano reggiano and bake in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
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