Test Kitchen #13: Lasagna Rollatini Florentini

This week a request came from Mom who was apparently craving some lasagna. Both Dad and I have made lasagna on numerous occasions so we decided on trying a rollatini as a different approach. This dish has been the star of many Olive Garden commercials recently, so it's always fun to try to take a a popular restaurant recipe and make it your own.

A slightly "healthified" version, we used whole wheat noodles, part skim ricotta and a good helping of fresh spinach leaves for the filling. The healthier ingredients were complemented by their less so partners in Italian sausage and whole milk mozzarella. While I'm glad to substitute some ingredients for healthier ones when I can, I have learned the hard way, that one should not make any entire recipe out of lower fat content elements. It almost never works out the way you hoped and taste always suffers. And as Dad would say, "You need some gusto!"

Ingredients:
1 box Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles
1 pound package of sweet Italian sausage links
Tomato sauce (homemade or brand of your choice)

For Filling:
2 eggs
2 pound container of part skim ricotta cheese
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan/Romano cheese
1/2 bag of fresh spinach leaves
Small handful of fresh parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste

Cooking the Sausage:
1. Place sausage in a small skillet with a 1/4 " of water. Boil until all the water evaporates.
2. Continue cooking and rotate occasionally until browned on all sides.
3. Cut into 1/2" thick slices. Place in a small pot on warm with enough tomato sauce to cover all.

Filling:
1. In a food processor, grind up spinach and parsley until fine.
2. Place ricotta in the large bowl of the kitchen mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
3. Mix on low speed, adding in eggs, bread crumbs, 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese, grated Parmesan and spinach/parsley mixture. Blend until smooth. Add salt & pepper if needed, to taste.


Assembly:
1. Boil lasagna noodles according to box directions. When cooked, rinse immediately with cool water to prevent them from sticking together.
2. Place a small amount of sauce in the bottom of (2) 8" square baking pans or (1) large 9" x 13" pan. (With these quantities of ingredients we filled (1) 8" square and (1) 9"x 13".)
3. Using one noodle at a time, cut the first one in half and lay on a cutting board or work surface. (Leave unused noodles in the pot of water so that they don't dry out.)
4. Place one heaping tablespoon of the ricotta filling on one end of the noodle. Roll with your fingers to opposite end.
5. Place roll in baking pan, seam side down. Continue this process until all noodles are rolled or you run out of filling.
6. Place 1 slice of sausage on top of each roll. Cover all with tomato sauce.
7. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese.
8. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes.

The Verdict:
We made two pans of rollatini to be eaten later for dinner. I took home the 8" square pan and Dad had the larger of the two. I think my favorite part was the filling. Growing up I was never a big fan of ricotta cheese. It always seemed dry and pasty tasting. I can remember scraping most of the filling out of lasagnas and stuffed shells leaving the pasta, sauce and cheese behind as my dinner.

I've now discovered a smooth, creamy texture of ricotta can be achieved with two things; properly ingredients for seasoning and choosing the right brand. The flavors added from some blended Parmesan cheese and Italian bread crumbs is always a step in the right direction. I was really happy that we decided to use fresh spinach instead of frozen. The color was beautiful and the filling remained creamy and fluffy without taking on the excess water from a frozen box brand.

Perhaps the key to a great ricotta brand is staying local. Cutrefellos ricotta from the Stratford owned dairy is the brand we chose for this recipe. I'm also really partial to the Calabros brand. I'm not sure how they make theirs, but it's so creamy and smooth, I've been known to eat it straight from container.

Having now prepared lasagna this way, I think I like it better than the traditional sliced and stacked variety. It looks prettier and there's a great portion illusion you can trick yourself with. After all, four little rolls, all be it the same amount of food as one stacked slice, certainly fills the plate a little more completely.