It’s somewhat hard to believe that I’ve been writing posts for about two months and I have yet to write about our Wednesday dinner club! So… here we go!

A few years ago, my friends and I spent our Wednesday nights spouting the random knowledge we have acquired through some healthy competition at a local pub trivia night. It was a source of pride, connection, and a nice mid-week pause.  After our 30th year round the sun, however, we each began to feel the effects of this extra night of pizza and pitchers and realized that we should spend more time sweating rather than sitting.  We of course wanted to do this together, so we ‘created’ a Wednesday night running club.  For the first year we consistently met at someone’s house, everyone would head out on the run of their choosing, and end up back at the house by a specific time. The host would facilitate dinner, and we would get to enjoy each others company, and have that pause over a shared meal.  Two years later, our Wednesday dinners are still a regular tradition.  We rotate hosts and while we don’t run as often as a group each week, we do keep our eyes peeled for short races that we can enjoy together.

This past Wednesday was our turn to host, and I excitedly looked at my ‘to make list’ in search of something that could be made to please a vegetarian, a gluten allergy, and some strangely picky eaters (no squash, mushrooms, or eggplant as only a few examples).  This post from Another Foodie Blogger reminded me how fun lasagna roll ups are to make and to eat.  In the end, they were a hit and easy enough for me to differentiate for dietary needs (one pan ‘regular,’ one with gluten free noodles and the meat sauce, one with a simple veggie red sauce).  It will be hard to top this one next month, but I’m up for the challenge.

Ingredients:

• 26 lasagna noodles
• 3 cups of red pasta sauce (plus extra for serving after it bakes)
• 1 big tub of ricotta (32 oz)
• 4 teaspoons of garlic
• 1 1/3 cup of mozzarella (give or take on this one)
• 1/2 cup of grated parmesan
• 20 oz of spinach (I used half fresh and half frozen)
• 2 eggs
• 1 onion

Steps & Notes:

1. Pre-heat heat the oven to 400
2. Cook the lasagna noodles about 80% of the time noted on the box. Remove from water and lay onto parchment paper
3. Saute the onions and garlic. Add salt and pepper and saute for 3 minutes. Turn off heat and let cool slightly.
   • As noted below – I could see adding a range of flavors to this step
4. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs, ricotta, and a bit more salt and pepper.  Then, once the egg is fully mixed, combine the spinach and onions.
5. Place a thin layer of red sauce on the bottom of your baking dish. Now you are ready to roll!
6. On each lasagna noodle, add 1/4 cup of mixture then roll from end to end.
7. Place seam side down into the baking dish.
   • Due to my limited counter space, I worked in batches, rolling about 6 noodles at a time while more were in the pot boiling.  
8. Once the pan is filled with roll ups, cover the pan with the remainder of the sauce.
9. Sprinkle mozzarella and Parmesan on top of each roll up
10. Cover in tin foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then, remove the foil and boil for 10 minutes.
11. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

We served this with garlic bread, and an arugula salad.

Thoughts for Next Time:

• Dice some mushrooms in the food processor and add them to the saute. It would add some extra yummy additional flavor.
• Saute the onions with a bit of cracked red pepper.
• Add butternut squash puree to the roll up
• Incorporate hot Italian sausage or ground beef