Recipes Discovered

Portobello Lasagna Rollups Recipe

Fresh Tomato Sauce Recipe

Lasagna generally takes a really long time to bake, which makes it more of a special dish. I thought making lasagna rollups would cut down on the baking time, but honestly, the rollups take just as long to bake as regular lasagna (about an hour). The rollups are a little fancier than traditional layered lasagna though, and this particular dish is definitely an upscale version of lasagna.
I generally use this recipe for tomato sauce, which is pretty similar to the recipe included with the lasagna, but I thought I would try to make the sauce with fresh tomatoes since there are so many in the garden. I started by peeling and chopping 10 large tomatoes, about 8 cups. In a large pot, I heated some oil and then added onions. I cooked them about 5 minutes until they were soft, and then added garlic. Once the garlic had cooked for a minute, I added the tomatoes, tomato pasta, oregano, basil, salt, and a bay leaf. I also added about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes. When I make tomato sauce with canned tomatoes, I cook it for 30 minutes. With the fresh tomatoes, it took about 2 hours for the sauce to cook down and thicken up. >>
Once the sauce was finished, I added whole wheat lasagna noodles to a large pot of boiling, salted water. I only cooked the noodles about 7 or 8 minutes, just until they were soft and pliable but not completely done. I drained the noodles and then laid them flat on wax paper.
In a very large skillet, I heated oil over medium heat and added sliced mushrooms. It takes awhile for the mushrooms to brown, about 10 minutes. After the mushrooms cooked down, I added salt, but I didn’t add the tomato sauce. I wanted the mushrooms to stand out and not blend in with the sauce. In a separate bowl, I combined ricotta cheese, spinach, an egg, salt and pepper (I omitted the nutmeg).
In a baking dish that I sprayed with cooking spray, I ladled enough tomato sauce to cover the bottom of the dish. To build the rollups, I spread the ricotta cheese mixture over 3/4 of each noodle. I added the mushrooms on top of the cheese and topped the mushrooms with a spoonful of tomato sauce. Then I rolled the noodles up, starting with the filled end and rolling towards the part of the noodle with no filling. Once rolled, I placed the rollups in the baking dish with the end of the noodle facing down. I covered the rolls with the remaining tomato sauce, covered it with foil, and placed it in the oven. I waited to add the cheese until the rollups baked for 45 minutes, so the cheese didn’t stick to the foil. Once I removed the foil and added the cheese, I baked the rollups about another 10 minutes until the cheese was lightly browned. I let the lasagna setup for 10 minutes before serving. The rollups are a lot easier to serve than traditional lasagna, since they are already precut.
I really enjoyed the flavor of this lasagna. The mushrooms had a wonderful, beefy taste that definitely stood out. I loved the fresh tomato sauce, even though it took forever to make. It was sweet, which paired nicely with the cheese and mushrooms. It also masked the bitterness of the spinach. The whole wheat noodles had a greater depth of flavor than regular noodles. They had a hearty, nutty taste that I really liked. Overall, I thought it was a great lasagna. The rollups took awhile to put together, but I think the dish would still taste the same if I layered everything like traditional lasagna, so I would probably try that next time.