HEALTHY SPINACH & COTTAGE CHEESE LASAGNA

Healthy Spinach & Cottage Cheese Lasagna image

An easy, quick, and healthy vegetarian lasagna that substitutes cottage for ricotta. It's from Martha Rose Shulman's column in the New York Times, "Recipe For Health". MAKE AHEAD: The lasagna can be assembled up to a day ahead of time, covered with plastic and refrigerated. Replace the plastic with foil before baking. It can also be frozen for up to a month.

Provided by blucoat

Categories One Dish Meal

Time 50m

Yield 6 serving(s)

Number Of Ingredients 9

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Ingredients

1 1/2 cups nonfat cottage cheese or 1 1/2 cups low fat cottage cheese
2 1/2 cups fresh tomato sauce (made with canned tomatoes) or 2 1/2 cups simple marinara sauce (made with canned tomatoes)
12 ounces Baby Spinach or 1 generous bunch spinach, stemmed and washed
salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2 lb no-boil lasagna noodles
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (2 ounces)
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 375°F Oil a 2-quart baking dish or lasagna dish. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Place the cottage cheese in a food processor fitted with the steel blade, and blend until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce, and blend until smooth. Scrape into a bowl.
Wash the spinach, and wilt in a large frying pan over high heat in the water left on the leaves after washing. Transfer to a colander, rinse briefly and squeeze out excess water. Chop fine (by hand or in a food processor), then stir the spinach into the cottage cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
When the water comes to a boil, salt generously and add enough lasagna noodles to cover the surface of the baking dish (for my rectangular dish, that's three lasagna noodles). Boil just until the pasta is flexible, about two or three minutes for no-boil lasagna. Using tongs, remove the pasta from the water, and drain on a clean dish towel. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the baking dish, and top with a layer of noodles. Top the noodles with a third of the cottage cheese mixture. Use a spatula to spread it evenly over the noodles. Top with 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce, and spread in an even layer. Sprinkle on 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan.
Repeat these layers two more times, using up the cottage cheese/spinach mixture but retaining tomato sauce and Parmesan for the top layer. Cook one more batch of lasagna noodles, and top with the remaining tomato sauce and Parmesan. Sprinkle on the bread crumbs, and drizzle on the olive oil. Cover tightly with foil, place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until bubbling. If you wish to brown the top, uncover and continue to bake until the top just begins to color, about five minutes. Remove from the heat, allow to sit for five to 10 minutes, and serve.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 151, Fat 5.5, SaturatedFat 2, Cholesterol 9.9, Sodium 746.5, Carbohydrate 14, Fiber 3, Sugar 5.6, Protein 13.1