With our busy lifestyle, I always look for shortcuts and easy meals. My family loves pasta, but I tend to make WAY too much, and we eat leftovers until everyone is sick of pasta. Lasagna is one of their favorite meals, but it takes a lot of effort. Since I can no longer access my personal Facebook page, I have been scrolling Pinterest for recreation. Of course, I have a never-ending board of recipes that I would like to try. Lasagna pinwheels are at the top of my list of must-try recipes from my Pinterest board. However, I cannot find the perfect recipe.
Many of the recipes I have pinned sound delicious in theory, but I know my family well, and they will not think adding hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or large bits of onion to pasta is acceptable. So, I do what I do: take a good idea and put my spin on it. In my mind, creating lasagna roll-ups will be much easier than layering pasta, cheese, meat, and sauce. I hope I am correct.
We will have lasagna pinwheels for dinner tonight and a simple salad and garlic bread. This will be my first attempt at making pinwheels, and I am hopeful they will turn out well. I have decided to apply my lasagna recipe to pinwheel making. Although I have never made it in pinwheel form, my family enjoys my tried-and-true lasagna recipe. Today, I will share my recipe and put a pinwheel spin on it.
Lasagna Pinwheels
Ingredients:
-One package of lasagna noodles, cooked following package directions
Cheese Filling:
-One 46 oz. container of ricotta cheese
-2 cups of mozzarella cheese, set aside a 1/2 cup for topping
-1 cup of parmesan cheese
-2 eggs
-4 cloves minced garlic
-3 TBLS. dried oregano
-2 tsp. each dried basil, salt, dried parsley
-1/2 tsp. black pepper
-2 quarts of marinara sauce (I like GramBarb's home-canned recipe, but store-bought will also work well. I prefer Luigi's canned sauce if using store-bought sauce).
-1 lb. ground beef or loose Italian sausage, browned and cooked thoroughly. Drain the excess fat. Crumble the cooked meat and set aside.
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Prepare a 9x13 baking dish with olive oil or nonstick cooking spray.
-Mix all ingredients for the cheese filling well.
-Lay the cooked lasagna noodles flat on a large cutting board or clean counter. Spread each noodle with four spoonfuls of cheese mixture.
-Roll individual noodles into pinwheels and place pinwheels in the prepared baking dish, end side down.
-Top the pinwheels with ground meat, then mariana sauce, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, and top with mozzarella cheese.
-Cover and bake for 40-50 minutes in the preheated oven.
-Enjoy with a side salad and garlic bread or Italian bread.
We will have lasagna pinwheels for dinner tonight. I am looking forward to this easy meal with my family. I hope you enjoy it too, dear reader. On this overcast Friday, stay safe, be smart, enjoy good food with good people, and keep washing your hands.