L is for lasagna
Updating the blog as it’s been about a year and a half since I last posted anything… I’m now in a different state, working at a different newspaper and a married lady!
Among random musings and other things, I hope to share my adventures in cooking on this blog. Lately, it’s been concentrated on slow cooking. For the past few weeks, John and I have been making a new dish each week in our Crock Pot, which was one of my bridal shower gifts. He’s made chili and cassoulet; I’ve made pulled pork and shrimp creole. Tonight, we layered lasagna in the slow cooker. The best part about slow cooking? The incredible smells that build as the food cooks. What’s the worst part about slow cooking? The torture of smelling the food for hours and not being able to eat it! I am not a patient person. I can smell the cheese and sauce bubbling away and I am ready to dig into this lasagna, Garfield-style!
As I am probably the biggest pasta-eater outside of Italy, lasagna has always been one of my favorite foods. It was actually one of the main dishes served at our wedding. 
And who doesn’t love that you can throw several things into a Crock Pot and just let it go for a while? As a lazy, messy cook, I’m a big fan.
Here’s the recipe we used – it’s pretty standard – found in Real Simple magazine…
Spinach and ricotta lasagna (serves 6)
Ingredients:
2 10-oz. packages chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove excess moisture
1 cup ricotta cheese (we used a bit more for extra cheesiness!)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 cups marinara sauce (we used an arrabbiata sauce – I would think any red sauce would work well)
6 regular lasagna noodles (not no-boil)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarrella cheese
Directions:
In a bowl, mix together spinach, ricotta and 1/2 cup of Parmesan. In a second bowl, mix together marinara sauce and 1/2 cup water.
Spread 3/4 cup of marinara mixture in the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. Top with 2 noodles (breaking to fit), 3/4 cup of the remaining marinara mixture, half the spinach mixture and 1/2 cup of the mozzarella; repeat those 4 steps. Top with remaining noodles, marinara mixture, mozzarella and Parmesan.
Cover and cook on low until the noodles are tender, 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
*** Post-chow-down thoughts: It was good. Not as blow-your-mind good as I was hoping for, but it was a solid lasagna. I’m glad we used arrabbiata, because it gave it a bit of a zing that just marinara might not have. For the amount of cheese used, it wasn’t as truly gooey-cheesy as I thought it would be, but still good. I think next time, we might try to use fresh spinach, to see if there’s a taste difference. Has anyone tried that? Thoughts?
