Basil Pesto Spinach Lasagna

I love homemade lasagna and have shared several recipes for various lasagnas in the past. One of my favorite recipes is Basil Pesto Spinach Lasagna. If you use your own homemade pesto, mozzarella and ricotta you have a real winner! This recipe was adapted from one I found on Epicurious.com. I decided to make two small 8×8 lasagnas so I could freeze one for later.

Basil Pesto Spinach Lasagna

Ingredients for a white sauce:

2 Tbsp butter
¼ cup flour
2 ½ cups dry white wine
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk for one minute. Add milk and wine and whisk until smooth. Cook until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil, whisking constantly.  Remove from heat. Whisk in Parmesan cheese and salt.

Ingredients for the filling:

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cup chopped onions
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2-10 oz packages of frozen spinach, drained well

Directions:

Heat the oil in a separate pan. Add onions and garlic. Sauté until the onions are soft, about 2 minutes. Add the spinach stir until well mixed. Mix in 1 ½ cups of the white sauce.

Ingredients for the lasagna:

Lasagna noodles
28 oz of fresh ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 large egg
2 cups fresh mozzarella cheese
Basil pesto

Directions:

Cook the noodles according to the package directions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13x9x2 inch-baking dish (or use two 8×8 pans).

Mix ricotta and Parmesan together. Mix in egg.

Spread ½ cup white sauce thinly over the bottom of the dish. Spread half of the spinach mixture over and sprinkle with1/3 of the mozzarella. Top with noodles and half of the ricotta mixture. Sprinkle half of the pesto mixture evenly over the ricotta. Continue layering with noodles, remaining spinach mixture, 1/3 cup mozzarella, noodles, remaining ricotta mixture and then remaining pesto. Top with the last noodles. Spread remaining white sauce over the top, sprinkle with mozzarella. Cover the dish with a piece of buttered foil.

Bake lasagna until heated through and bubbling at the edges, about 50 minutes. Remove from oven and remove the foil.

Remove foil. Broil lasagna until top is browned in spots, turning dish occasionally for even browning, about 4 minutes. Let stand a few minutes to set up.

Serve and enjoy.

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