New Zealand Spinach Lasagne Recipe

Last night we had a party at which we served, among other things, a spinach lasagne made with New Zealand Spinach. People enjoyed it, as have we and those with whom we shared it, when I have made it before. I thought I had put the recipe on this blog, but it looks like I did not. So I will try to do so now, though the only pictures I have so far are of New Zealand spinach. I usually make a half recipe, which makes enough for 4-6 servings, but you can make a full one easily. Just double everything (use two jars of tomato-based pasta sauce) and use a big baking pan. One egg will still work in the ricotta mix whether doubled or not. You may have to cook a full recipe up to 10 minutes longer.

Here is a photo of New Zealand spinach for those to whom it is unfamiliar:

The plant grows wild just above the beach in San Francisco, teaching us two important facts about it: 1. That it is able to grow in areas with a cold, windy, often foggy, and dry summer.  and 2. That it is a rampant grower, weedy, in fact.  

Happily, this plant can also tolerate heat, so it can be grown inland as well. and it is a much more succulent, bigger-leaved plant when it is grown in richer soil and with regular water.

The plants seems to consist of single long leafy stems, though when you take off a tip, to eat it, new shoots will form along the original stem, especially if it is growing horizontally or vertically, and stems will often climb upward, reaching through a trellis or over another plant, or over other NZ spinach plants, then hang downward at their tips. It blooms as it grows, with small yellowish flowers, and forms, first soft, green, immature then, deep brown, mature, hard seeds in leaf joints farther back on the stems. (These fall as soon as they are ripe, and reveal where they fell with new seedlings. You can basically cut off and discard some of the stems if they get in the way and pull extra seedlings and let the plant have space you don't need.)

To harvest the plant, I break off leafy stem tips, 3 -4 inches long. above the place where seeds begin to harden. (It is fine to have immature, green seeds on the tips you pinch off.) There will be up to about a half-dozen leaves on your harvested tips. You will need 30 or 35 of these tips to make a half-recipe of lasagne, twice as many to make a full recipe. 

To make  a half recipe of NZ spinach lasagne:

Set the oven at 400 degrees F. 

You will need:

A Tablespoon of olive oil or a little no-stick spray oil

Lasagne noodles (hard no-boil are fine, though you may need to parboil some of them so you can cut them.) You will need 6-8 noodles for a half recipe, depending on the shape of your casserole.

A jar or can of tomato pasta sauce, 2-3 cups (read the label so you can avoid ones with high fructose corn syrup in them.)

About 1 1/2 cups of steamed New Zealand spinach--wash it and cut each tip into about 3 pieces. It steams fast--in 5-10 minutes. Cool it before you use it in the recipe.

A pound (or a bit less if the container you find is a bit smaller) of low-fat ricotta cheese

An egg--or, if you have an egg substitute product with the cholesterol removed, use 2 Tablespoons of that

3/4 to 1 cup of coarsely shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1 cup and a little more Parmesan cheese

One fourth to one half teaspoon of ground nutmeg. 

Directions:

1. In a big bowl, mix the ricotta with the egg, most of the mozzarella, and most of the parmesan, and the NZ Spinach, leaving a bit of mozzarella and parmesan for putting on top.

      2. Grease a baking dish.  The one I use is about 8 x 10" (inside measure) and about 3"inches            deep. It is important that it be deep, because you are going to put several layers in it. 

      3. Add a bit of pasta sauce to the bottom of the dish and spread it in a thin layer. Put a layer of lasagne noodles on top. My pan uses almost 2 noodles per layer (1 full noodle, with a half-noodle wide strip beside it, and a shorter strip of half-wide noodle at the end. (To cut the noodles, if they are the uncooked, no-boil kind, soften them for about 2 minutes in lightly boiling water, lift them out with tongs, put them on a cutting board and cut them with a knife or kitchen scissors. Put them in the boiling water one at a time to avoid noodles sticking together.) 

      4. Now that you have set the number of noodles you will need for each layer, make 3 layers as follows. noodles, a thin layer of pasta sauce, 1/3 of the ricotta/spinach mixture, 1/3 of the mozzarella,  a thin layer of pasta sauce. On the top, sprinkle a little shredded mozzarella and a little Parmesan. (Be especialy careful to not use too much ricotta filling or tomato sauce at a time so you have enough of them.)

Bake about 35 minutes. You want it to be bubbling, with the cheese on top melted and browning a little. 

You can refrigerate the lasagne, if covered well, for 3 days, or you can wrap it tightly and freeze it for a couple of weeks, then thaw it and heat it through.