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Spinach and Ricotta Rotolo | The New Lasagna


Rotola a wonderful dish not very well known outside of Italy but it is a magnificent Italian pasta dish using lasagna sheets, where they are filled and rolled in a creamy sauce and baked in a rich tomato sauce.

Takes 1 minute

Serves 4

Ingredients
 

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 200 g oyster mushrooms; chestnut mushrooms
  • ½ tsp salt
  • pinch of black pepper
  • 3 tbsp tamari/soy sauce
  • SAUCE
  • 680 g passata
  • 1 x tub of Happy Pear sun dried tomato pesto 180g
  • TOPPING
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 15 g bread cumbs panko breadcrumbs if you can get will give a higher crunch
  • 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • SPINACH RICOTTA MIXTURE
  • 350 g soaked cashew nuts
  • 200 ml water
  • pinch salt
  • tsp garlic powder
  • 150 g wilted or frozen spinach
  • 6-8 lasagna sheets

Instructions
 

  • Put the lasagna sheets in large bowl of boiling water for 30 mins, make sure sheets are totally covered by water, to soften them, after 10 mins check sheets are not sticking together and separate in needed. Make sure there is enough room when soaking them so that they don’t stick together.
  • For the Spinach and ricotta: Soak the cashew nuts, ideally overnight, but if you don't have the time just boil them for 15 mins and give them a good rinse before blending. For the ricotta, simply add the rinsed soaked cashew nuts into the blender along with the water, garlic powder, salt and blend till smooth. To wilt the spinach just add to a pot with 50 ml of water and put the lid on, leave to wilt for 3 mins until all the leaves have cooked down. Using a sieve over the sink, transfer the spinach and give it a good squeeze to remove any excess moisture and a rough chop and add to the cashew cream and mix.
  • Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves and the onion and chop the mushrooms into bite size pieces.
  • In a medium size pan over medium-high heat, add two tablespoons of olive oil and the onion, reduce heat to medium and stir while frying for about 3-4 mins. Add the garlic, mushrooms, pinch of salt and cook for 4-5 mins mushrooms until they have started to brown and reduce by a third. Add in the tamari sauce and continue to cook while occasionally stirring for 2 mins. Take off heat and set aside, allowing to cool.
  • Using a scissors cut the soaked lasagna sheets lengthwise in half.
  • Remove lasagna sheets from the water and remove any excess moisture. Lay the lasagna sheets out on a clean surface lengthways. Cover each sheet with approx 1 tbsp of spinach ricotta. Add roughly 1 tsp of the mushroom onion mix at the top of each sheet. Roll up lasagna sheet gently.
  • Mix the pesto with the pasatta and add to a pie dish (approx 10 inch length, 8 inch wide and 2.5 inches deep) Place the cut filled lasagna rolls, pasta cut-side up in the sauce in your pie dish. The tomato sauce should come about 1/2 the way up the pasta rolls, this will stop your pasta drying out while cooking. Repeat with the remaining filled lasagna sheets.
  • In a small bowl add 2 tsp of oil to the bread crumbs along with the chopped thyme leaves. Mix well and distribute bread crumbs evenly across the top of pasta-filled pie dish.
  • Bake for 20-30 minutes in the oven or until breadcrumbs are nice and golden brown and the pasta is soft and cooked. Remove the dish from the oven and let sit at room temperature for a few minutes before serving. Enjoy!

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