Dear friends, it’s Monday again! 😃 And a new recipe is ready for you for the Light and Tasty column. Today the Team asked us to create a new baked pasta. Just the right topic for the pre-Easter Monday, and I bet you too, like me, are looking for a Easter lunch recipe! Well then! Let me present my proposal: lasagna with stridoli. A recipe that has been waiting for quite a while to be written and finally its moment has come.
Do you know stridoli? I’m sure you do, it’s a wild herb with many names (stridoli, strigoli, carletti, silene, schioppetti, sonaglini…) and widely used in cooking. It can be used, besides for making my lasagna, also for stuffing tortelli and ravioli (instead of spinach), or in the sauce for tagliatelle, or even for making a risotto or an omelet. These last two suggestions were given to me by my friend Pinuccia, and I keep them in mind waiting for the right moment for them too. Pinuccia! Someday I’ll try them both! 😀
But today I tell you about my lasagna with stridoli, my very first recipe with stridoli.
A very simple recipe, which I had prepared in a sprint version for a “normal” lunch, a quick-to-decide daily lunch (what a surprise, huh? happens every day! 😅), assembled in a hurry, and entrusted to the oven, that holy appliance that cooks for me while I take the opportunity to return to the computer to work a little more.
Ahhhhh, how wonderful technology is (sometimes)!! 😃
In their simplicity, these white lasagna with stridoli are so good that considering them just a quick recipe is reductive, I also recommend them for Sunday lunch. And also for a festive day, for example… for Easter!
How about trying them?
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Affordable
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients
Quantities and weights refer to 4 indicative servings.
The filling for each layer, and how many layers for each lasagna, can be modified according to tastes and habits 🙂
- 10 sheets thin egg lasagna
- 2 bunches stridoli (silene vulgaris) (about 80 g)
- 250 g ricotta
- 500 g béchamel
- to taste grated Parmesan
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- pepper
Tools
- Frying Pan non-stick
- Baking Dish round oven dish
Preparation of Lasagna with Stridoli
First of all let me show you the stridoli, a photo dedicated to those who don’t know them or know them by a different name.
Note: the bunch shown in the photo is what I used for this lasagna. In the ingredients, I indicated two bunches because that’s what I’ll do when I cook this lasagna with stridoli again. Never having eaten them before, it was thanks to this recipe that we found out that the taste of stridoli is delicate and not overpowering, so much so that these lasagna were very much liked even by my kids who are resistant to vegetables 😃 and therefore next time I’ll move to the double-stridoli step!
Alright, let’s start.
1. First, prepare the béchamel. Here are the links to my microwave-cooked béchamel sauces:
Light béchamel in the microwave
And, if you prefer, the Classic béchamel.
2. Wash the stridoli.
3. Remove the stems and cook the stridoli in a non-stick pan with a little oil and a clove of minced garlic. The cooking is quick, just a few minutes.
4. Coarsely chop the stridoli and mix them with the ricotta. Season with a pinch of pepper.
To make the mixture creamier, add a few tablespoons of béchamel. It will be easier to spread on the lasagna.
👉 You can comfortably use, in fact, I highly recommend, homemade ricotta (or alternatively homemade fresh cheese similar to ricotta).
5. Assemble the lasagna (I used a package of thin sheets), spreading a layer of stridoli filling on each pasta layer. Add two or three tablespoons of béchamel and Parmesan on each layer.
👉 For a lighter version, and with lower salt content, you can omit Parmesan in the internal layers, limiting it to the last layer only.
6. Finish the last layer by covering it with béchamel and Parmesan, so a typical crust will form during baking.
7. Bake in the oven at 400-430°F for about half an hour.
👉 Cooking time may vary according to the type of pasta used. Thin sheets are generally used directly without pre-cooking, but in my experience, they always take a little longer to cook than the time indicated on the package. If you need to shorten the time, a brief pre-cooking of the sheets might be useful (just a quick dip in boiling water).
Enjoy your meal!
☝ If you want to make the pasta at home – sometimes I manage to do that on holidays too! 😃 – here’s the link to the classic base recipe (from my mom) for homemade egg pasta –> HERE
👉 If you can’t find stridoli but still want to make these lasagna, use spinach instead of stridoli, you’ll be equally satisfied! 😊
Carla: Pasta and Shrimp Tarts
Daniela: Lasagna Muffins
Elena: Baked Ziti with Peas and Burrata
Franca: Sicilian Anelletti Timbale with Anchovies
Milena: Handkerchiefs with Pesto, Potatoes, and Green Beans
Serena: Baked Tortellini
Salt-Free Tips
If you’re interested in reducing or eliminating salt, always remember to:
● Decrease salt gradually, the palate needs time to adjust and shouldn’t notice the progressive reduction.
● Use spices. Chili pepper, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cumin…
● Use herbs. Basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, mint…
● Use seeds. Sesame, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts…
● Use spicy vegetables or fruits. Garlic, onion, lemon, orange…
● Use my salt-free vegetable granule and gomasio.
● Prefer fresh foods.
● Avoid cooking in water, prefer cooking methods that don’t disperse flavors (grilling, foil, steaming, microwave)
● Avoid bringing the salt shaker to the table!
● Occasionally allow yourself a break from the rule. It’s good for morale and helps to persist.
If you can’t or don’t want to give up salt:
● You can still try my recipes by salting according to your habits.
If you can’t or don’t want to give up salt:
● You can still try my recipes by salting according to your habits.
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FAQ (Questions and Answers)
What are stridoli?
It is an edible and perennial wild herb known by many names (stridoli, strigoli, carletti, silene, schioppetti, sonaglini) and its scientific name is Silene Vulgaris. It is a herb widely used in cooking both raw, in salads, and cooked, mainly used for sauces and fillings.
Where and when are stridoli (or strigoli, carletti, silene, schioppetti, sonaglini) collected?
Stridoli are collected from spring to late summer. Being a wild herb, it can be found in the countryside along with other common herbs, or along paths and waterways.
