Spinach and Mushroom Rollatini

As I have mentioned before, I am a bit of an over shopper.  This time around, I had an extra box of lasagna noodles in addition to the half a box I had left from the previous week's kitchen adventure.  I did not want to make just another lasagna so I decided I would go crazy and do rollatini instead.  At this point you are thinking to yourself "but wait...last week she said she used no-bake lasagna noodles.  How do you use those to make rollatini!?"  The answer my friends: hot water and a 7 minute pre-soak.  MAGIC!

The Spinach and Mushroom Rollatini recipe follows quite closely with the Italian Lasagna recipe.  The cheese mixture is almost exactly the same and I made my sauce the same just minus the meat.  Based on the amount of filling I put on each noodle, I was able to fit 12 total into the baking dish, so this recipe makes 6 servings.

Ingredients:

1 pkg. chopped spinach - thawed and excess liquid squeezed out
2 c. sliced mushrooms
4 oz. creamy goat cheese rolled in black pepper
15 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
shredded mozzarella
1 c. Parmesan cheese - grated
1 large egg
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes with basil
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 onion - chopped
2 Tbsp. partially dried basil
1 Tbsp. sugar
olive oil
1 1/2 pkgs no-bake lasagna noodles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F

In a medium saute pan, heat olive oil.  Add mushrooms and cook until tender, about 10 -15 minutes.

While the mushrooms are cooking, boil several cups of water.  Fill a 9x9 baking dish about halfway with the water and begin soaking lasagna noodles. Soak each noodle for about 7 minutes then lay out on parchment paper.  If you are worried about the noodles sticking to the dish or each other, add a bit of olive oil.

Once cooked the mushrooms are cooked, set aside to cool.  Add a bit more oil to the saute pan and then cook onions until tender, about 7 minutes.  Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, 1/2 the parsley, and the basil.  Simmer until the sauce thickens up, about 10 minutes.  When I taste tested the sauce I found it to be too acidic for me so I added 1 Tbsp of sugar for balance.

In a large bowl, combine spinach, mushrooms, goat cheese, ricotta, Parmesan cheese, egg, and the remaining parsley.  Make sure it is well mixed, you want a fork full of everything in each bite!

No that you have all your parts, time to put it all together.  Spoon a little less than half of the sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  On one of the lasagna noodles, spoon out about 3 Tbsp worth of filling and spread across.

Sprinkle with the mozzarella and then roll.

Repeat until you have filled the dish.

Spoon enough sauce on top to cover the rollatini and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes.

The result, in my opinion, is spectacular.  The cheese has a nice flavor and the mushrooms provide you with something you can sink your teeth into.  This recipe is also easily adjusted.  If you want something heavier on the vegetables, just reduce the amount of cheese.  The noodles will not get mushy even with the pre-soak and baking.