| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 30 min |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Cook: | 20 min |
| Yield: | s: 6 servings |
Ingredients
- EVOO
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, finely chopped
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- One 28 to 32-ounce can Italian San Marzano tomatoes, crushed
- A few leaves fresh basil, torn
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 rounded tablespoons flour
- 2 cups milk
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 box frozen spinach, defrosted
- 1 1/2 cups fresh ricotta
- 2 cups whole milk
- 6 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
- 2 1/2 cups quick-cooking polenta
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel pollen or ground fennel, optional
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 4 tablespoons butter, plus some for greasing casserole
- 2 cups shredded provolone
Instructions
- For the red sauce: Place a rack in the center of the oven. Heat some EVOO in a medium Dutch oven or saucepot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, carrots, celery and onions to the pot. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, add the bay and thyme and cook to soften, 5 to 6 minutes. Next, stir in the wine and tomato paste. Add the tomatoes and crush with a potato masher or wooden spoon. Bring the sauce to a bubble and reduce the heat to a simmer and thicken, 15 minutes.
- Preheat the broiler.
- For the bechamel and ricotta: Melt the butter in a saucepot over medium heat and whisk in the flour for 1 minute. Then whisk in the milk and bring to a bubble. Season the sauce with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Thicken the sauce and keep warm over low heat.
- Drain the spinach well and separate into small pieces. Mix together the fresh ricotta and spinach in a small bowl.
- For the polenta: Bring the milk and chicken stock to a low boil. Add the polenta and season with the fennel, if using, salt and pepper. Whisk the polenta to mass, 3 minutes. Finish the polenta by stirring in 1/2 of the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the butter.
- Butter a casserole dish. Add half of the red sauce, and top with half of the polenta. Pour the bechamel sauce over the polenta and dot with the ricotta cheese and spinach. Top the bechamel layer with the remainder of the polenta. Top the polenta with more red sauce and the remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano and provolone. Reserve remaining red sauce, if any, to serve on the side. Broil to set and brown, 5 minutes.
Reviews
For the granddaughter of an Italian immigrants (that have long gone to Heaven) this is a journey back in time for a taste of Mama’s Sunday dinner. Yum!
Was very easy to put together. I cooked it at 350 for 1/2 hour and then let it sit for an hour. It set up perfectly. I added ground sausage for added flavor. Very flavorful!
I’m watching this episode…. Ray keeps mentioning it’s ‘vegetarian friendly’… Vegetarians don’t eat meat…. So why is she calling it so if she added CHICKEN stock……
Well to quote my 7 y/o “it’s not good, but it’s not bad either”. Not a spectacular dish, if you like traditional lasagna, but not bad if your options are limited.
Made this recipe over the weekend which was time consuming but well worth it the flavors were d-Lish although i changed a few things around…i made the sauce according to the recipe and let it cool…I then made my bechemal with gluten free flour and let it cool to thicken and for the polenta i made this in a aluminum foil tray so i had two cookie sheets the same size as the tray and poured the polenta into those two trays on parchment paper and chilled it the fridge for 1 hr… i then proceded to assembel the lasagna….sauce, the polenta sheet and then for the spinach mixture i added mushrooms and fennal which i cooked in a sauteed in a frying pan till soft and let cool then added the ricotta to to the spinach mixture…topped with bechemal and sauce and then added the other piece of polenta on top and topped that with the remaining bechemal and sauce sprinkled with remaining parmigiana and topped with reduced fat provalone….Thanks for a fantastic recipe Rach IT WAS YUM-O-LICIOUS
Not sure what the people who said no taste were talking about – this was a fantastic recipe! I would recommend it to all…
I will never go back to making lasagna with lasagna noodles–EVER! I make this to take to friends or for potlucks. Everyone agrees it is the best lasagna they’ve ever eaten. I like a meaty lasagna, so I add hamburger and Italian sausage to the sauce. I also love smoked gouda cheese, so I add that to the polenta. This takes me much longer than 30 minutes to make with all the prep, but it is so worth it.
This recipe took 57 minutes to prepare! A little misleading as the header indicated 10 minutes of prep. and 20 minutes to bake. My baking time was about 35-40 minutes, but my spinach was still a little cold, so I can attribute it to that. Many dirty pots and pans and cutting boards. The lasagne was tasty but not amazing for all of the work.
Delicious! So comforting, and although it was a bit messy intially, the leftovers set up well and had no problems once the lasagne had cooled.
awful! messy & time consuming. not much flavor either.