- 12
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1/2 lb lean ground beef
- 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
- 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes (I'd recommend Contadina Brand)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 Tbsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 (15 oz) container Ricotta Cheese
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup fresh flat leaf parsley (aka Italian Parsley, its about 1 small handful), chopped
- 2 1/4 cups freshly grated Mozzarella Cheese, divided
- 3/4 cup freshly, finely grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
- 1/3 cup freshly, finely grated Romano Cheese
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 12 uncooked lasagna noodles
Preparation
Step 1
Lasagna in a single serving form, no more messy sloppy layered squares! I love these. Not only do they look incredible they taste incredible! I doubt I will ever make regular layered lasagna again. These are the perfect serving size, and they are so much fancier. If you ask me I think they are even easier than layered lasagna.
grated cheese for all the cheeses, you are not allowed to use the pre-grated stuff, it’s junk especially for lasagna =). You will also noticed in the recipe that I stated to grind the cooked beef/onion mixture in the food processor for a few seconds, I do this because every really good Italian restaurant I’ve been to seems to have finely ground beef in their pasta sauces and I love it. You don’t get any large chunks of beef in your sauce, it just gives it a better consistency. If you have a small family this is a perfect dish to make the whole batch, then freeze half (unbaked) and thaw overnight the day before you want to eat it and bake the next day for dinner. I love getting two meals from one.
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drizzle one tablespoon olive oil into a large non-stick fry pan. Heat over medium high heat, crumble ground beef over oil, add chopped onions and cook mixture stirring occasionally and breaking up meat, until browned. Drain fat from beef. Pour beef mixture into a food processor and pulse for about 5 seconds until it is ground into fine pieces. Pour beef mixture back into fry pan and add crushed tomatoes, minced garlic, basil, oregano and 1 tablespoon olive oil and stir. Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste then cover with a lid and simmer over low heat while preparing pasta and cheese mixture.
Cook lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water along with 1 tsp salt and 2 tablespoon olive oil to al dente according to directions listed on package. Once noodles are cooked, drain and immediately line noodles in a single layer on waxed paper or cookie sheets.
Prepare cheese mixture (I do this while pasta is cooking) by stirring together Ricotta cheese, egg, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper with a fork in a large mixing bowl until well combine. Stir in chopped fresh parsley. Add in 1 3/4 cups grated Mozzarella Cheese, 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese and 1/3 cup Romano Cheese, stir mixture until well combine.
Stir meat sauce and spread 1/3 cup evenly into a 13x9 inch baking dish by tilting pan back and forth. Spread 1/4 cup cheese mixture evenly onto each cooked lasagna noodle, then spread 1 heaping tablespoon meat sauce along the top of cheese covered noodle. Roll noodles up jellyroll style and arrange seam side down in baking dish. Cover rolled noodles with remaining meat sauce (about a heaping 1/8 cup over each) then sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese evenly over roll ups. Tent lasagna roll ups with foil (don't allow foil to rest on cheese or it will stick you just want to loosely tent to prevent the cheese from browning) and bake for 35 minutes in preheated oven. Serve warm garnished with additional chopped fresh parsley.
: What a fantastic idea! I make lasagna pretty often so I’ll keep this method in mind the next time I make it.
Debbie: I hdven’t tried to make these yet, but in regular lasagna I sometimes substitute cottage cheese for the ricotta and it comes out great. I use the full fat cottage cheese.
: Cortney – I wouldn’t recommend doing a batch that large because I don’t think there’s anyway the sauce or pasta and so forth would fit into the saucepans. It would be a lot to work with at once. I would maybe recommend doing 3x the recipe 3x (or the last batch you could just double). Then you can refrigerate the batches as you finish the others then warm the first batches in the oven while it’s preheating since they’d be colder. I hope that helps! Good luck – I’ve never made so many at once you’re amazing =).
: I know this will vary person to person, but would you say just one of these would be filling for one person? Or two? I definitely want to make and freeze these to take to work…my fiance doesn’t like soft cheese (like ricotta) and therefore I never get to eat lasagna anymore :(
: It gave me mouth water. My boyfriend is traveling. Saturday he returns and make sure this dish for him. Here in southern Brazil is a very cold climate and with this lasagna will be wonderful. Sorry for my english. Kisses …
Rachel – the easiest method I would say is to cook the entire batch, then freeze them individually. I did this by placing them in small containers and sometimes even small ziploc bags. Then put the individual serving in the fridge the day before you plan on eating it so it can thaw overnight then heat in the microwave or oven until heated through. Alternately you could thaw them in the microwave if you didn’t thaw overnight in the fridge. I hope that helps! Also, if you were referring to making a whole/half batch then freezing it prior to being cooked I would recommend that it be thawed in the fridge overnight then baked the next day according to the directions listed, BUT I would say rather waiting for the oven to preheat immediately place it in a cool oven to bake and set the temp to 375 then once it reaches the 375 degrees bake for about 35 – 40 minutes. I hope that makes sense.
: Made these tonight, and they were a huge hit. I got a bit lazy about doing anything other than throwing the hot ingredients together in the pan (no pulsing for me, though now I’ve assembled the rolls, I understand why you had gave that instruction!!) and it was enough for us three tonight, plus another couple nights of left overs. I’ll definitely be making these again, though luckily I won’t have to make them any time soon.
: This is a great idea. Thank you for that. I will try this next time I make lasagne. I especially like the fact that half of it can go into the freezer. Will make sure to use as much fresh ingredients I can. I cannot use the same brands as you do because I live in The Netherlands plus I’m a veggie. I will try this with grounded tofu. Let’s see how that turns out.
: I have been dying to make these and today was the day! I didn’t have any ground beef so I substituted chicken. I cubes it and Sautéed it in Italian seasonings first then off to the processor it went. It’s in the oven now but I’m confident it will be delish since my son helped;). So fun and thank you for the idea!!
: I’m going to make this tomorrow with my niece who has a very short attention span. I think the rolling will be a perfect thing for her to ‘help’ with. Also thank you for the freezing/reheating suggestions. I will definitely be using those… and I will be “Pinning” your recipe!
Anonymous: This was the easiest dish I have ever made in my life……The only thing I messed up on was the size of the lasagna noodle. I think I got the extra EXTRA large noodles LOL Therefor I only had enough mix to apply to 6 rolls. OVERALL AMAZING!
Lori Connor: Going to a family reunion tomorrow. I think I will make a double batch of these cute little lasagne things. I bet they will be the hit of the party. Thanks for sharing your recipe! Oh, found you on Pinterest.
Anonymous: Made and froze a batch of these for lunches. I love having something ready to go, yet knowing what the ingredients are. I even added kale instead of parsley. I sneak in veggies anywhere I can! Awesomely simple recipe! thanks!!
: Anonymous – I would recommend doing the freezing and thawing the night before method. I think the pasta may just absorb too much of the liquid if it’s stored in the fridge that long before baking. If I were to make them the day before I would store them in the fridge (pasta and sauce seperate, then pour the sauce on before baking). I hope that suggestion helps, I’m no food scientist but that’s what I would do =). Have a great week! I hope you and your guests enjoy!
: LOVED THESE! I made these for dinner tonight–I used 1/2 pound ground meat and 1/2 pound sweet sausage (and then pulsed in the food processor (loved this idea as well)) and instead of crushed tomatoes, I used one 28 ounce can of meat flavored sauce (I doctored this up a bit with some garlic and onion)–so very yummy! My kids usually aren’t a fan of lasagna night (I usually make it the ‘normal’ way) but everyone loved these! Will definitely be making these again; in fact, I will probably never go back to the regular lasagna making again. Thank you for this recipe!!! *found recipe on Pinterest*
Anonymous – I would say you could substitute the Ricotta Cheese with Cottage Cheese. You could maybe even try a little bit of Marscapone or Cream Cheese just to add a wet cheese into the recipe in place of the Ricotta. Hope the suggestions help! Enjoy!
: Made these for my hubby and toddler girls. We all LOVED it! I’m going to be adding this to our regular freezer meal list for sure. Thank you!!
Sandy: I would like to make this with fresh noodles and not precook them. Do you think this would work and if so should I cook it a bit longer?
Sandy: Thanks, I will let you know how I make out.
: Melaina25 – yes I think you’d be fine to leave the egg out, it’s added as a binder but I’ve heard people say with lasagna and manicotti recipes they leave the egg out all the time and as long as you have the combo of ricotta and mozzarella it turns out great. One of these days I may try it myself =). I hope you love these!
Jayne: These were really delicious and easy to make! Will definetly be making these often in the near future. Would love to make them and freeze them to have them available for quick meals.
: Wonderful!! Found you on Pinterest, thank goodness. Made as instructed in the recipe plus added some leftover spaghetti squash that I had cut up into small pieces into the sauce. Turned out fabulous!! My daughter had hers gobbled down before I was half way through mine. Will definitely make this again.
Donna: This is a winner! Made this for my family over the weekend…what a hit! Love the individual servings, and putting the meat in the processor made for a smooth filling. A little bit of extra work and prep time, but I will definitely make this again!
: I’m soooo glad I came across this recipe! Thanks for the meal idea. I’ve had a craving for lasagna for quite some time and this will make my day.
Anonymous: Hi, Im Karla. I have a suggestion about your hamburber. I have friends owned a mexican resturant. Ive noticed that the meat in tacos is very fine and not as much fat.. I could never do that at home. But I found out its because they boil the hamburber. It was very difficult putting that meat into boiling water the first time but it quickly seperates into small peices and cooks very quickly. When you drain it, most of the fat goes with it. Then you season it how you like or put into sauce. Its great for cutting down fat grams in cooking but it also give that texture you are talking about. Karla p.s. I cant wait to try these roll ups!
Jann: This sounds fabulous, and I intend to make it soon. I enjoyed reading all the comments, and especially enjoyed how responsive you are to inquiries. I will definitely follow your blog.
Karla – I will have to test that out sometime, very interesting I have never even thought to boil hamburger before. I wonder what the flavor is like? Does it lose any of it’s flavor in the water I wonder? I also fear I wouldn’t be able to get those nice brown edges on the beef. I will have to give it a go sometime and see for myself =). Thanks for the idea!
Lisi – what a creative variation. I should try an alternate form of protein in these sometime, thanks for the comment!
Terrie: Found your recipe on Pinterest, turned out great the first time. Interesting about pulsing the hamburger, but worked very well. Will definitely try again. My husband always tops his lasagne with pepperoni, so will try on this recipe. Another variation would be to use ground sausage rather than hamburger. Will continue to follow your blog. Thanks for new super idea for dinner.
: Anonymous – 35 mins is what I recommend it listed near the bottom of the directions =).
Anonymous: i have made these several times for my husband and i. he loves them, and i love that i can make ahead and freeze for when he has to make his own dinner! i use cottage cheese instead of ricotta (cream it in the food processor first) then add mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese to the whole mess along with the seasonings! mix it well and spread it down the middle of each lasagna noodle. we use pepperoni slices instead of any ground meat, cause i am not too hot on ground meat. they come out great, and are so easy to do!
Anonymous: I double the noodle and cheese recipe and triple the sauce recipe as we are sauce people and this makes 4 trays of 6… enough for my husband and I and our one year old for four dinners. I don’t have a food processor so I use my baby bullet works great!
: I made this last night – I intended to eat one rollup. That did not happen. I had to eat a second one. I can not wait to eat the left over rollup with salad tonight. I used a bottled spaghetti sauce (Prego Traditional) and added the chopped ground beef for the meat sauce. I had it on hand so had to use it.
Anonymous: Wow! I made these today and my family absolutely loved them. I followed the recipe exactly however, the next time I will task myself with the mozzarella. I will also double the sauce recipe. This recipe makes just enough for a dozen rolls. The following is one word from each one of my family members to describe how well they liked the rolls: absolutely amazing, heaven and good! Thank you again for sharing! ~Jenn
: If you drain them and process them in a food processor or blender then it would be pretty close. The thing I like about the crushed is that I buy crushed roma tomatoes the diced usually aren’t roma, but it should be fine.
Anonymous: sounds great except make it easier, you don’t have to put ground beef in food processor, just cook with a bit of water and it will be a very find texture. Also don’t need to tent the foil, just spray it with cooking spray before you put it on top!
: I tried these tonight, and they were all right. There wasn’t anything wrong with them; I just felt like they were a lot more work than regular lasagna. The roll-ups did make for a nice presentation, and were easier to serve though! Thanks for sharing :)
Dara: I made this last night (found on pinterest) and had to bake the whole batch this time because I’m short on freezer space. Also just wanted to try it. Of course I had leftovers even thought it was really delicious! How do you recommend heating the leftovers? Microwave or oven?
Paige Walker: I too found you via pinterest and am so glad I did. These have just been added to my menu for next week. I know one young man in particular that will love this :o)
Betty Dowell: I would love to make these. Can you please advise if these can be frozen. Thanks
: Betty – Yes definitely. I freeze them all the time. Sometimes I freeze them before baking and sometimes after baking. Just thaw them before cooking or reheating. Hope you enjoy!
AML: I made this dish last night and it came out perfect and delicious. I made it with whole wheat pasta noodles instead (healthy option). I also removed the foil after 35 minutes and put under the broiler for about 5 minutes to brown the cheese on top. I would definitely make this again.
Anne: I made these and they were delicious. I made it with whole wheat noodles instead and took off the foil and put under the broiler after baking it for 35 mins. so the cheese can brown a little. I would definitely make this again.
Lou: Yumm this looks so good!! My mom is going into surgery in a couple weeks so we are trying to make and freeze single servings in individual containers so she can just pop them in the microwave for a meal. Would it be possible to freeze this fully cooked!? If so, what would your guess be on microwave time for one lasagna roll up? Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with us!
: Lou – sorry to hear about your mom! I hope things go really well for her. That’s really nice of you to make her some meals! These can definitely be baked and then frozen. I usually allow mine to thaw before microwaving so it only takes about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes to warm so I’m not sure how long it would take if frozen? I’d maybe thaw (even in the microwave then heat, just so the edges don’t dry out or something). I hope your mom loves them!
Add your comment:
My Favorite Fluffy Buttercream Frosting
Cake Batter Milkshakes {3 Ingredient Recipe}