Lasagna With Spinach, Pesto And Cheese

If you want to get out of the routine and prepare a different dish, we encourage you to prepare a delicious lasagna with spinach, pesto and cheese. A truly exquisite combination of flavors typical of Northern Italy.

Spinach Lasagna

Ingredients for 4 people

• 1 box of lasagna sheets.
• 1/2 kilo of frozen or raw spinach.
• Goat cheese, 1 roll.
• Homemade pesto.
• Homemade bechamel.
• Parmesan cheese, cured manchego, enmental or grated mozzarella.

Preparation mode

• Cook the lasagna sheets, introducing them one by one in the boiling water for the time indicated on the package. You can also opt for lasagna sheets that do not need cooking. They will save you a lot of time, since you only have to include them in the recipe without any cooking.

• Make your homemade pesto : a handful of basil (about 40 grams), 1-2 cloves of garlic, 20 grams of pine nuts, a little less than 1/2 glass of olive oil, 25 grams of grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Beat all the ingredients in the blender and you’re done. There are those who make pesto in a mortar, it is a more rustic way of elaboration and that does not leave the sauce so fine. That depends on your taste.
• Cook the spinach.
• Mix it all up. Once cooked, drain well and add the homemade pesto and chunky goat cheese.
• Prepare the bechamel. Although they sell bechamel already prepared, it is best if you make it yourself.

How to prepare the bechamel?

Ingredients for the bechamel

• 1 tablespoon of flour.
• 30 grams of butter.
• 1 heaping tablespoon of olive oil.
• 2 glasses of milk
• Nutmeg to taste and salt.

Preparation of the bechamel

• Melt the butter in a pan with the oil.
• Add the flour and give it a few turns to toast it a little. In this way you will get a béchamel without the flour flavor, typical of inexperienced cooks.

• Add the cold milk little by little and stir with a few rods so that no lumps form. Season with the salt and nutmeg.
• The béchamel sometimes resists, so if it comes out lumpy, don’t worry, put it through the blender.
• Assemble the lasagna. As simple as alternating lasagna sheets with the spinach mixture and the béchamel sauce. Go layering until you finish with the sheets and the filling. Finish the last layer with sheets of lasagna, bechamel on top and plenty of grated cheese on top of the béchamel.
• Put your lasagna in the  preheated oven at 200º C for 30 minutes.

Variants to your spinach, pesto and cheese lasagna

In all the recipes we can make different variants according to our taste. Next, we offer you some of them. You can use all these variants in the same recipe or choose the points that you like the most.

• Variant 1 : With the same ingredients from the previous recipe, you can make another lasagna recipe, both are very tasty, although perhaps this one is tastier than the previous one, the secret is that once the spinach is cooked and well drained, Pass them through a pan for a few seconds, with a few slices of well-fried garlic and red or white onion, if you like. If the spinach is fresh, it is not necessary to cook it, since just passing it through the pan is enough. You let it cool a little and add the pesto and cheese. The rest of the recipe would stay the same.
• Variant 2 : Instead of goat cheese, you can use fresh cheese, cottage cheese or Roquefort cheese.
• Variant 3 : “Light lasagna” with spinach, pesto and cheese. Replace the whole milk of the béchamel with skimmed milk, do not pass the spinach through the pan with garlic, you will reduce calories if you incorporate them cooked only. In addition, garlic gives it a lot of flavor, but it also has a lot of calories. Instead of goat cheese, use fresh Burgos type cheese and grated Parmesan cheese for low-calorie melting cheese.

How to accompany your spinach, cheese and pesto lasagna

Lasagna is a typical Italian dish. How can we accompany you?

• Accompany it with lambrusco wine, it  is very cheap, you can find it in any supermarket and it is very tasty.
• Make a good Italian salad : lettuce, tomato, canned tuna, black and green olives, fresh chopped basil, oregano and salt. You can also substitute sliced ​​mozzarella cheese for the tuna.
• As an antipasto, the name given to Italian hors d’oeuvres, you can make a tomato and mozzarella bruschetta. Cut vienna bread into slices and spread them with olive oil, tomato and mozzarella on top.

We hope that you will be encouraged to prepare this delicious dish that may be useful to you on more than one occasion. Surprise your diners with an Italian-style meal, a delicious and healthy spinach lasagna.