Quick spinach lasagna
I’ve been watching Sara Moulton’s show "Weeknight Meals" on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) for a while. When she was in Food Network, I’ve never watched her since her show time was in the morning and I didn’t remember to tape any of it. Here, now that she moved to PBS, I could catch her show because it’s aired on nightime here. I don’t always like her performance in the show, sometimes she seems to be hurried to finish the dish, and other times I just don’t like the food she prepared 
But recently I watched an epidsode where she made a quick asparagus lasagna.
Instead of the regular lasagna noodles, she used wonton skins. I’ve either watched or read about using wonton skins for making lasagna but have never tried it. The steps are pretty easy and quick, no question that the name fits the description. Since asparagus is not in season anymore, I substituted with frozen spinach that’s been defrosted and drained well. Sara Moulton suggested using broccoli too if people like broccoli better. Her method included roasting onions, garlic and asparagus with a little bit olive oil, salt and pepper in the beginning. You could imagine the smoky flavor in the lasagna already. A little different is not a bad practice. The only disadvantage of using frozen spinach is that I couldn’t roast it in my broiler and I was too lazy to sauté it, so I left it as it was. But I still roasted the onions and garlic that way I could get a bit smokiness in the lasagna. The other thing that bothered me a bit was that my wonton skin was of thin variety. I purposedly bought the thin variety because when I make fried wonton I’ve always like biting the thin skin of wonton. As a result the middle layer of the lasagna seemed a bit lost in the spinach-cheese mix. And I used two kinds of cheese available in my fridge which were Italian Fontina and Provolone. All is not lost because the lasagna still turned out great and tasted delicious. They’re like round cheesy mounds easily divided for individual portion.
It’s not bad for a weeknight meal in my household!
Quick Asparagus Lasagna
Makes 4 to 6 servings
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly milled black pepper
1 pound asparagus, trimmed—I used frozen spinach, thawed and drained well
1 medium onion, halved and sliced (about 1 cup)
2 garlic cloves, sliced (about 2 teaspoons)
One 15-ounce container ricotta cheese
2 teaspoons unbleached all-purpose flour
18 refrigerated wonton skins
8 ounces Italian Fontina cheese, coarsely grated (about 2 cups)—I used half Italian Fontina and half Provolone
Preheat the broiler to high. Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet and a lasagna pan (9-by 13-inches roughly). Combine the oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a shallow bowl. Peel the lower stalks of the asparagus if they are thicker than 1/3 inch. Toss the asparagus in the oil mixture and arrange at one end of the oiled baking sheet. Toss the onion and garlic in any remaining oil in the same bowl and arrange them on the other end of the baking sheet. Broil until the edges just begin to brown, about 5 minutes. If using spinach, you could sauté it on the pan with a little bit of olive oil.
Reduce the oven to 375°F. Combine the onion and garlic with the ricotta, flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a blender; puree until smooth. Cut the asparagus into 1-inch pieces. Arrange 6 wonton skins in the bottom of the pan. Top with half the asparagus, one-third of the ricotta mixture, and one-third of the Fontina. Add another 6 wonton skins, the remaining asparagus, and another third of the ricotta mixture and Fontina. Top with the remaining wonton skins, ricotta mixture, and Fontina.
Bake the lasagna in the top third of the oven, 30 to 35 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned.
Note: On the show I added the onions and garlic to the asparagus; if you prefer to do that rather than purée them with the ricotta, that is fine.
Source: adapted from Sara Moulton Weeknight Meals episode #101
Hey quick recipes are a good thing to have on hand, and this looks like a good one!
i know, this was what saved my day!
Comment by RecipeGirl — September 27, 2008 @ 8:00 am
I like quick recipes, they really work for me especially, when I fell lazy to cook!
don’t we all?
Comment by elra — September 27, 2008 @ 9:30 am
Liz, lasagna pake spinach emang enak! gw dah pernah coba juga. Resep ini something new buat gw – blon pernah coba bikin lasagna pake wonton skin. I shall try sometime.
blog gw lagi diberesin templatenya. so gw set buat private dulu dari pada viewernya bingung.
yg belum pernah gue cobain itu pake broccoli, mungkin lain kali.
oh, pantes….gue sampe “sedih” tadinya hahahha….
Comment by dwiana — September 27, 2008 @ 9:42 am
oh, I too really like Sara’s show on PBS, but must have missed this episode. What a great idea!
it is!
Comment by Olga — September 28, 2008 @ 6:33 pm
What a great idea! I wonder if you could do the same thing with filo dough. I might give that a try!
i bet you can too, it becomes like spanakopita
Comment by Maris — September 28, 2008 @ 7:15 pm
That lasagna looks great! I’ve never seen wonton skins used in that way, but I can see how they would work. Fantastic!
thanks for coming by!
Comment by patsyk — September 29, 2008 @ 12:04 pm
Maybe I could try baking wontons with spinach and cheese fillings in it
i think it’s a great idea tigerfish!
Comment by tigerfish — September 30, 2008 @ 11:09 pm
oh i love how these are individual and made frm wonton skins … how simple n effortless!
yeah, why didn’t we think of that sooner?
Comment by Kate — October 1, 2008 @ 6:22 am
it’s so nice to learn that lasagna can be made quickly!
yes, no more boiling pasta
Comment by alexandra\'s kitchen — October 1, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
What an amazing idea for dinner! YUM!
i know!
Comment by Patricia Scarpin — October 2, 2008 @ 6:43 am
Huzb loves lasagna and I need to practice my lasagna skills more! mine always come out too watery….yours looks so perfect!
really? well, this one doesn’t use ricotta cheese so that may be the culprit.
Comment by Jaden, Steamy Kitchen — October 5, 2008 @ 5:02 am