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Plated lasagna and Spinach Lasagna recipe is Today's Delight.
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Spinach and Beef Lasagna with White Sauce

This moist and creamy Spinach and Beef Lasagna recipe features 3 layers of lasagna noodles filled between layers with juicy meat sauce, fresh spinach, creamy white sauce known as Parmesan bechamel sauce, and gooey mozzarella cheese.
Course How to, Main Course
Cuisine American, Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes
Servings 12
Calories 576kcal

Ingredients

Meat Sauce

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 medium onion minced
  • 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 pound Italian sausage
  • 1 (24 oz) Italian Tomato sauce (Prego Traditional Italian Sauce)
  • 14 ounces fire roasted diced tomatoes
  • 3 ounces tomato paste ½ of small can
  • 1 ½ tablespoons fresh oregano chopped or 1 ½ teaspoons dry oregano
  • 2 tablespoons fresh basil chopped or 2 teaspoons dry basil
  • ½ teaspoon brown sugar (if desired)
  • Salt and pepper season to your tastes

Parmesan Bechamel Sauce

  • ¼ cup butter
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 4 cups milk
  • 1 cup fresh shredded parmesan parmigiano
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
  • 1 egg beaten
  • pinch of nutmeg

Lasagna Noodles

  • 9 to 12 pieces lasagna noodles boiled al dente
  • water to boil noodles
  • olive oil sprayed on noodles not to stick

Additional Ingredients

  • 1 bag 10 oz baby spinach
  • 1 bag 16 oz shredded Mozzarella cheese
  • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley garnish or 2 teaspoons dry parsley
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Lasagna Meat Sauce

  • In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat and brown beef. Remove excess oil. Remove from pot.
  • Saute onion until soft, then add garlic. Cook until golden.
  • Add Italian sausage, cook and break it up until browned.
  • Pour in the Italian tomato sauce, crushed fire-roasted tomatoes, and tomato paste. Blend well.
  • Stir-in oregano and basil.
  • Bring to a boil, lower heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes.
  • Salt and pepper to taste.
  • Note: Taste the meat sauce and add brown sugar, if needed.

White Sauce (Parmesan Bechamel Sauce)

  • In a dutch oven or large sauce pan over medium to low heat, melt butter.
  • Add flour stirring constantly so that it does not turn lumpy.
  • Turn heat to lowest setting.
  • Add ⅓ of milk whisking constantly, then add all the milk and continue whisking until well blended and not lumpy.
  • Raise heat to medium and continue stirring until slightly thick.
  • Add nutmeg, salt, and ground pepper. Continue stirring.
  • Note: You might need to adjust the heat to medium-high, and after a few minutes, the sauce will start to thicken. Once the sauce is thick, remove it from the heat.
  • Slowly add beaten egg while stirring constantly.
  • Add Parmesan cheese stirring briskly.
  • Set aside.
  • Note: If you prefer a thicker layer of béchamel sauce, make 1 ½ of the recipe. I did so because we love this sauce, but to some, it might be too rich.
  • Also, I don’t wait for the sauce to cool down; once the meat mixture and pasta are ready, I assemble them all together.

Prepare Lasagna Noodles

  • Fill a large pot with ⅔ of water and bring it to afull rolling boil. Once boiling, add the noodles in 2 batches with a generous amount of salt. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Drain the water and place the noodles on a tray lightly sprayed or greased with olive oil.
  • Lay the cooked lasagna noodles on the tray, then spray the top with olive oil before adding another layer. This will prevent the noodles from sticking together.

Assemble Lasagna Layers

  • Note: You will have 3 layers of lasagna noodles.
    Divide the following into portions: Meat Sauce into 4 portions, Fresh Spinach into 3 portions, Parmesan Bechamel Sauce into 3 portions, and Mozzarella Cheese into 3 portions.
  • Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  • Add the meat sauce, then the fresh spinach on the base of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Don’t place noodles directly on it to prevent sticking to the baking dish.
  • Lay out 3 to 4 lasagna noodles. Cover the pasta with meat sauce, spinach, bechamel sauce, and mozzarella cheese.
  • Add another layer of noodles, and repeat the same procedure for the 2nd layer.
  • Lay out the 3rd layer of lasagna noodles. Pour meat sauce, bechamel sauce, and mozzarella cheese.
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Notes

  1. Don't add too much salt in the meat sauce since cheese can be salty.
  2. After simmering the lasagna meat sauce for 45 minutes, TASTE it to see if you need to add the brown sugar. Some tomato sauce are quite sweet already, so it might not need it. Sugar is added to compensate for tomato sauce acidity.
  3. I made the lasagna meat sauce a day earlier so all the flavors could meld well and to get it out of the way.
  4. You can use regular canned diced tomatoes, but I love using fire-roasted diced tomatoes as they add more savory flavor to this lasagna recipe.
  5. I prefer to use fresh herbs, but you can always use dried herbs.
  6. The lasagna top will be bubbly, with some oil coming out.
  7. Garnish with parsley.
  8. Set the baked lasagna aside for 20 minutes before slicing.

Nutrition

Calories: 576kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 31g | Fat: 40g | Saturated Fat: 18g | Cholesterol: 118mg | Sodium: 1203mg | Potassium: 786mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 3493IU | Vitamin C: 14mg | Calcium: 548mg | Iron: 3mg