Pasta roses stuffed with spinach, a main dish for special occasions like Father’s and Mother’s Day; or to serve at Easter. It is a very simple, vegetarian preparation, but can be customized according to tastes and occasions. The stuffed pasta roses, in addition to being delicious and succulent, are also beautiful to look at, choreographic, perfect for a chic lunch; moreover, by reducing the size of the “roses,” we can offer a finger food main dish for a buffet. The pasta I used to form the pasta roses stuffed with spinach is known in my area as “curly lasagna,” a type of dry pasta that we use to make Neapolitan lasagna at Carnival. There are several brands on the market that offer it under different names, including “lasagnette,” “lasagnoni,” and so on. It’s very easy to recognize because it is a strip of pasta about 10 inches long, 2.5 inches wide, and “curled” on both sides. You can, of course, also use fresh lasagna sheets to form the roses, without the “curl” of the decoration.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Portions: 5
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
- 9 oz lasagnoni
- 1.1 lbs spinach
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- to taste fine salt
- 5 tbsps mix of grated parmesan and pecorino romano
- 3 cups milk
- 0.35 cups all-purpose flour
- 0.35 cups butter
- to taste fine salt
- to taste nutmeg
- to taste ground pepper
Steps
1) Wash the spinach, let the excess water drain thoroughly.
2) In a large pan, sauté a garlic clove in its skin in a generous tablespoon of oil. Add the spinach, over high heat, add 2 pinches of fine salt, cover, and let wilt for a minute. Then, stir, turning the spinach so that those at the bottom of the pan are now on the top, cover again, let wilt for another minute, turn off the heat, cover, and set aside. The spinach should only wilt, not cook completely.
3) Prepare the béchamel sauce, as described here
4) Cook the lasagnoni. Bring water to a boil in a tall pot. Salt it, bring it back to a boil, add a tablespoon of seed oil (this will prevent the lasagnoni strips from sticking to each other during cooking), and add the pasta.
5) When the pasta is cooked, drain it and lay each strip on a large cutting board or tray lined with lightly oiled parchment paper.
6) Take the spinach again, remove the cooking liquid, and if necessary, gently squeeze them as they should be dry.
7) Fill each strip of pasta with a line of spinach, grated cheese, and pepper, if desired.
8) Roll up the pasta strips, starting from the short side, to form a cylinder.
-In this regard, I would like to add that if you want pasta roses, like those in photo 6, mini size, after laying them on the cutting board, divide the pasta strips in half and then fill them as described above. In this way, they will roll better and there will be no inevitable problems with the filling spilling out due to the cut.-
9) After filling and rolling all the pasta strips, pour an abundant ladle of béchamel sauce on the bottom of the pan.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Place the filled pasta cylinders in the pan (upright or flat, as convenient), one next to the other, cover with the remaining béchamel sauce (or part of it if it turns out to be too abundant), more grated cheese, and into the hot oven at mid-height for a maximum of 15 minutes (since all the ingredients are already cooked and just need to flavor each other).
This is my basic version of pasta roses with spinach. We can add minced meat or crumbled sausages to the filling – after properly sautéing them in a pan – or smoked provola, mozzarella, and so on.
