Mmm Mmm Monday! Cheese Lasagna Rollatini

We have Kevin to thank for today's recipe's name, Cheese Lasagna Rollatini.  I wanted to make some stuffed shells bc I had some ricotta and mozzarella hanging around.  I didn't have the jumbo shells, although I did have lasagna noodles.  I thought about making cheese lasagna, but Kevin really prefers meat lasagna.  I just wasn't into working with meat yesterday.  Soooooo I found this Stuffed Shells III recipes at All Recipes.  It came out pretty well, but what to call it?  Since it's lasagna noodles rolled and filled, he suggested rollatini.  Perfect!  The link goes to the orginal recipe; here I'll give what I actually did.

Note:  This ended up making a lot of stuffed lasagna noodles, two approx. 9" x 13" baking dishes to be exact.  I guess you could layer them bc the end result when unlayered is kind of short.  I didn't expect it to make this much, but I'm not dividing things by 2 bc I'm kinda tired right now and I'll probably screw it up.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. lasagna noodles
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 32 oz. ricotta cheese
• 1 lb. mozzarella, shredded, divided
• 8 oz. Parmesan cheese (or other grated cheese), divided
• a bunch of parsley and oregano and a little less basil, all dried
• salt & pepper to taste
• about 45 oz. whatever tomato/pasta sauce you like

Instructions

1. Cook lasagna noodles until al dente; drain; separate and lay out noodles.  You will need to use half noodles.  I broke mine in half before putting them in the boiling water, but you can do it after you drain them.

2. In a large bowl: mix eggs, ricotta, 1/2 lb. mozzarella, 1/4 lb. Parmesan, herbs, salt and pepper.

3. Spread tomato sauce over the bottom of two 9" x 13" baking dishes; it doesn't have to be a thick layer of sauce, just to cover the bottom.

4. Take one half of a lasagna noodle, scoop a blob of the ricotta mixture onto the center of the noodle and roll the edges over to make a short, stubby sort of manicotti.  Place seam side down in the dish.  Repeat with the rest of the noodles and ricotta mixture.  I used a cookie scoop to make scooping the ricotta mixture onto the noodles a little easier and more consistent.

5. Pour tomato sauce over the stuffed lasagna noodles.

6. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan over the top.

7. Cover with foil; bake at 350 F for about 45 minutes until hot & bubbly; remove foil and return to oven for 10 minutes to brown and further melt the cheese on top.

I forgot to take a picture of it just out of the oven, but Kevin gamely held off on digging into his plate until I took a picture of it.

 

Bon appetit!