| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 1 hr 55 min |
| Prep: | 25 min |
| Cook: | 1 hr 30 min |
| Yield: | 8 to 10 servings |
Ingredients
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 12 dry lasagna noodles (not no-boil)
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- One 10-ounce box frozen spinach, thawed
- 1 pound cottage cheese (about 1 3/4 cups)
- 4 ounces fresh goat cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, Pecorino Romano, or a combination
- 1 pound pre-shredded mozzarella, (about 4 cups)
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 4 cups Tomato Sauce, recipe follows, or your favorite jarred
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 large cloves garlic, smashed
- Two 28-ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes, with juices (about 7 cups)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2/3 cup packed basil leaves
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and salt it generously. Add the lasagna noodles and boil, stirring occasionally, until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and garlic in a saucepan over medium heat until the garlic begins to brown. Add the spinach, season with salt and pepper and stir until the spinach dries out and the garlic is fragrant, about 3 minutes. Cool.
- Mix the cottage cheese, goat cheese, Parmesan/Pecorino, 2 cups of the mozzarella cheese, lemon zest, nutmeg, cayenne, and cooled spinach in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in the egg.
- Cover the bottom of a 9- by 13-inch casserole with a thin layer of Tomato Sauce. Cover with 3 of the noodles placed side-to-side, but not overlapping. Top with a 1/4 of the cheese mixture and about a half cup of Tomato Sauce. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Repeat to make 2 more layers. Cover lasagna layers with remaining noodles, dollop remaining cheese mixture on top. Drizzle with remaining Tomato Sauce, then scatter the remaining 2 cups mozzarella on top. Bake, uncovered, until the lasagna is hot and bubbly, about 40 to 45 minutes. Let lasagna stand for 10 minutes before serving.
- Put the olive oil and garlic in a saucepan and cook until fragrant, 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and salt. Break up the tomatoes into small chunks with a wooden spoon and bring to a boil over high heat, lower heat to a brisk simmer, and cook until thickened, about 30 to 40 minutes. While sauce cooks, tear basil leaves into small pieces. Remove the sauce from the heat, stir in the basil, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, to taste.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 10 servings |
| Calories | 488 |
| Total Fat | 29 g |
| Saturated Fat | 12 g |
| Carbohydrates | 33 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Sugar | 10 g |
| Protein | 27 g |
| Cholesterol | 76 mg |
| Sodium | 1215 mg |
Reviews
Used feta cause I didn’t have goat. Cut the zest a bit even thought it’s perfect for my taste. Added chopped basil to top as well.
Not my favorite. It tasted bland. I missed the ricotta cheese taste.
This was a hit for my family. I made the recipe without reading the reviews first because I was in a hurry. I felt when we were adding the ingredient’s that the amount of lemon zest would be too much so we only used 1/2 and I think it was still too strong. I would make the recipe again and only use a quarter. We don’t like goat cheese so I omitted that. Too make the sauce I just bought tomato sauce and added Wild tree spaghetti blend and it turned out awesome!
I’ve made this recipe a couple of times over the past two years and it’s fantastic!!! I add more spinach than the recipe calls for because I think it lacks a little for my taste, but keep all the other ingredients the same. This dish is my go-to for parties and gatherings and everybody has loved it!! Good job Food Network Kitchen!
Took others advice and omitted lemon zest. Glad I did because the goat cheese rendered the overall dish quite tart. Not a good mesh with the spinach in my taste. It was certainly edible and an easy recipe to follow. I won’t be making this recipe again, though.
Going to try recipe this weekend for a family gathering. Can I make this ahead of time?
We served this dish to company, which included a vegetarian. Everyone — including my “meat-and-potatoes” dad — loved it.
I would make only one minor change — reduce the lemon zest by half, because otherwise it tends to overwhelm the other flavors.
I would make only one minor change — reduce the lemon zest by half, because otherwise it tends to overwhelm the other flavors.
Delicious. I followed the recipe as written except for the lemon. I can’t wait to have leftovers today. I’ll probably add some pepper flakes for a bit more heat in the future.
This dish was fantastic. I added a spicy sausage and sauteed mushrooms to the red sauce and didn’t boil the pasta first – it turned out great. The lemon zest and goat cheese really gave it a unique, fresh flavor. My family said they’d rather have this lasagna over the traditional heavy red meat sauce lasagna – high praise from my Italian food loving family.
Yummy! I used whole leaf frozen spinach for the impact in the dish and would have doubled it if I had known it could use it. Used ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese. And due to comments below, I only used 1/4 of the lemon zest, would go as high as 1/2 in the future. The sauce is great, I used canned Whole Plum Tomato (Roma for a more authentic tomato taste. Used scissors inside the can to cut the tomatoes up more before putting in the saucepan. Start the sauce first, is my advice, as it takes a while to thicken.