Lasagna is often stuffed with meat or just cheese, but what about pesto? Including pesto in your lasagna recipe is a great way to change things up from what's normal. The other ingredients in this recipe will look very familiar to you.
That means that while this is a unique lasagna recipe, it isn't so out-there that casual lasagna enjoyers won't like it. Kids shouldn't make too much of a fuss about eating this, either, since it still includes plenty of cheese. Cheese seems to be the magic ingredient for picky eaters!
You'll be using two types of cheese for this recipe. Of course, ricotta is the first. You can't have a good lasagna recipe without it. Some cooks think that cottage cheese is a good substitute for ricotta, but we think ricotta is better.
If you can't acquire ricotta for some reason, however, you can substitute in cottage cheese. The other type of cheese we'll be using is mozzarella. We'll need quite a bit of mozzarella for this recipe, so make sure you pay attention to the amount and get enough! This is meant to be a cheesy recipe.
Pesto-Stuffed Lasagna
Ingredients:
15 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup prepared pesto
1 large egg, lightly beaten
8 ounces no-boil lasagna noodles (12 pieces)
4 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese (1 pound)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine the ricotta cheese, ½ cup of the pesto, and the egg in bowl.
3. Spread ¼ cup of the pesto all over the bottom of a 13x9x2-inch baking dish.
4. Top with 3 lasagna noodles (noodles don't need to touch or sides of pan, because they expand when baked).
5. Top the noodles with 2/3 cup of the ricotta mixture, spreading the mixture evenly.
6. Sprinkle with 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese.
7. Repeat these steps 2 more times ending with noodles on top.
8. Top with the remaining ¼ cup of pesto and the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.
9. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
10. Remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes until hot and bubbly.
11. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©iStock.com/AlexPro9500.