Get Cookin: Simple Spinach Lasagna

In the pasta world, lasagna is one of the big guns. You can dress it up or down and take it anywhere—potluck supper, backyard barbecue. And what would a ski trip be without a dish of frozen lasagna that turns watery by the time it’s whisked to the table to quell a pack of ravenous snowboarders?

Oh, I forgot. It it’s hard to make. Plus, you have to call the riot police when you try to get someone to scour the sticky, crusted pan afterward. Still, it’s a crowd-pleaser—when someone else makes it.

But slim it down, come up with some low maintenance tricks, and it’s a no-brainer. Bake it in a non-stick pan, and you’ll fall in love with lasagna all over again.

Menu

Marinated Artichokes with Peas and Thyme
Spinach Lasagna
Prunes with Oranges

Quick Tip

A key ingredient in the marinade is top-quality vinegar. Take yourself on a vinegar-tasting tour some time to see what's out there. If the very idea of sipping vinegar makes your mouth pucker, head for a gourmet food shop and prepare to be amazed. Though tastings are rarely an option in supermarkets, small specialty stores often supply bread cubes and samples of smooth, silky, and sometimes intriguingly flavored vinegar. When you want to cut fat and calories from your diet, substitute fat with the potent flavor bursts found in sensational vinegar.

Marinated Artichokes with Peas and Thyme

You can serve the obligatory green salad with lasagna, but for a change, try this savory mix of peas and artichokes. Warning: Those who love marinated artichoke hearts will find this dish addictive. Apart from cooking the artichokes, this appetizer couldn’t be quicker. I prefer whole just-cooked artichokes, but if you need an appetizer on the fly, substitute frozen artichoke hearts that are thawed and microwaved, or steamed until tender. I like to serve this in lettuce leaves, which holds the delicious marinade. By the way, artichokes are a good source of vitamin C, folate, and potassium.

4 medium, cooked artichokes
2/3 cup low-fat chicken broth
1 medium shallot, finely diced
1/4 cup champagne or white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon fresh, minced basil
1 teaspoon fresh oregano, or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup baby green peas, fresh or frozen
4 large lettuce leaves

A Word About Cooking Artichokes

Many cooks trim the bottom of the artichoke to make it stand upright. Big mistake. This discards the stem, which is an extension of the flavorful heart—the reason for eating an artichoke in the first place. To prepare an artichoke, lay it on its side and with a sawing motion, cut an inch off the top. Peel the tough outer skin of the stem, then cook and serve the artichoke on its side. Or, if you want them to stand tall, peel the stem first, trim it off the bottom, and add it near the end of the cooking, allowing 8 minutes for it to become tender.

Quarter the cooked artichokes and remove and discard the thorny inner leaves and choke.

Place the trimmed artichokes in a saucepan with the remaining ingredients except for the peas. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes or until the artichokes are hot. Stir in the peas and simmer for 2 minutes. Taste for seasoning, aiming for a pleasantly tart, peppery flavor. Discard garlic and serve immediately on the lettuce leaves. Or, refrigerate and serve cold, discarding garlic before serving.

(4 Servings)

Spinach Lasagna
Lasagna feeds a crowd, freezes easily, and can be assembled easily. In addition, it usually tastes better the next day. But this favorite has an added bonus. It’s packed with hidden produce. Before you grab a quick salad before bedtime, make sure you’ve counted the tomato sauce, spinach, and any other vegetable you might add to lasagna. They contain fat-free fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants—all the things you ask of vegetables.

Quick Tips

Here’re some potential time savers. Use preshredded fat-free mozzarella cheese, commercial fat-free or low-fat tomato sauce. Solve the problem of a watery sauce that occurs in vegetarian lasagna by preparing the spinach in an old-fashioned white sauce, which also adds an extra shot of calcium. You can prepare the tomato sauce and spinach ahead. Another timesaver—the liquid in the sauces render the noodles tender by the end of cooking, so there is no need to boil them first. Don’t forget the nonstick pan.

Basic Quick Tomato Sauce (See recipe below)
White Sauce with Spinach (See recipe below)
12 uncooked lasagna noodles
2 cups nonfat or low-fat cottage cheese
12 ounces grated or thinly sliced fat-free mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Spread about one-third of a cup of tomato sauce over the bottom of a 9 1/2- by 13-inch nonstick baking or other lasagna pan. Cover with a single layer of noodles, 3 lengthwise and 1 trimmed to fit the end horizontally.

Dot with one-quarter of the cottage cheese and spread loosely over the noodles. Spread one-third of the spinach sauce over the cheese. Sprinkle with one-quarter of the mozzarella cheese. Cover with 4 more noodles.

For the next 2 layers, begin with one-third of remaining tomato sauce, then cottage cheese, then spinach, and end with mozzarella.

For the top layer, over the mozzarella, layer the remaining tomato sauce, cottage cheese, spinach, mozzarella, and top with Parmesan cheese.

At this point you can cover and refrigerate for several hours, or bake in the preheated oven for 55 or 60 minutes, or until the noodles are tender and the top is golden. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

(Serves 10)

Basic Quick Tomato Sauce
You can use this recipe for any dish calling for a marinara-style or tomato sauce.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 32-oz. can crushed tomatoes with tomato puree added
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Gently heat the olive oil in a skillet or large saucepan. When a spray of water dances on the surface, add the onion and garlic and stir over medium heat until the onion begins to soften, about 1 minute.

Add the tomatoes in puree, herbs, salt, and pepper. Raise the heat until the tomatoes begin to bubble. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning, adding salt lightly if necessary, and pepper heavily. Use immediately or store, covered, in the refrigerator until needed.

Spinach in White Sauce

Health Notes: Salt to whose taste?

Except for baking, few recipes require an exact measuring of salt. A teaspoon that one recipe calls for may be too much for one person and too little for another. Sodium is in so many processed foods, it’s hard to keep count how much we consume. The American Heart Association recommends limiting sodium, only one of the components of salt by the way, to under 3,000 milligrams per day. In cooking, it is often more critical to add salt at the proper time, often during the cooking process where it can subtly flavor the ingredients, than dumping it in at the end. Often, a few grains are all that’s needed to pull disparate flavors together. So salt lightly and let the food’s flavor come through.

This is basically creamed spinach. By adding spinach to the white sauce, a common ingredient in lasagna, the liquid in the spinach is absorbed by the sauce and the finished dish does not become watery.

1 teaspoon butter
1 large shallot, finely diced
2 10-oz. packages frozen, chopped spinach, drained and squeezed of all liquid
3 tablespoons Wondra flour
3 tablespoons low-fat chicken broth
2 cups 1% milk, heated
Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat and add the diced shallot. Stir a minute or so until the shallot has softened. Add the spinach and heat thoroughly.

Stir in the flour and immediately add the chicken broth and hot milk. Raise the heat and stir continuously until it comes to a to boil.

Reduce the heat to medium and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Season lightly with salt, more heavily with pepper to taste. Set aside. If you are not going to use it immediately, place a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the sauce to prevent a skin from forming.

Prunes with Oranges
I’ve never understood why prunes are so maligned. They are so sweet and healthy. If they are at the bottom of your dessert barrel, try preparing them with orange syrup and fresh oranges, and perhaps they’ll redeem themselves. Use dried prunes that you have covered with water and cooked until tender—about 15 minutes—or use commercial, cooked prunes.

Healthy Pantry

Proper equipment makes healthy cooking easier. When a recipe calls for you to snip some chives into a dish, or cut the thorns from an artichoke, do you have to drop everything and hunt for scissors? Invest in a pair of good, but inexpensive, scissors for your kitchen drawer. Put them in the dishwasher and replace them when they become too dull.

6 small, sweet oranges
1 dozen cooked prunes
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Peel 4 oranges, cut into segments and set aside in a covered bowl and refrigerate until serving time.

Squeeze the remaining 2 oranges into a saucepan. Add the prunes and one-quarter cup of its juice. Stir in the sugar and vanilla. Heat until the sauce begins to steam and the sugar has dissolved. Chill thoroughly.

Arrange orange slices on serving plates and spoon prunes and sauce over them.

(Serves 4)