Spinach and Cheese Pasta Rolls

This is a great recipe because it has all the ingredients of a spinach lasagna (pasta, cottage cheese, tomato sauce, etc.), but it’s easier to break into smaller portions.  The rolls are like crepes in the oven tray, and you can freeze them for later use. You can also prepare a larger amount of tomato sauce, and freeze in smaller portions to use it in different dishes (It’s perfect for pasta, meatballs, fish, etc.).

Ingredients:

• 6 lasagna or flat pasta sheets, cooked
• 1 cup of cottage cheese
• 1 cup of chopped spinach
• 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
• ¼ cup of parmesan cheese
• cups of tomato pasta sauce (you can choose your favorite brand or make it home)

If you make the sauce at home:

• 10 tomatoes, chopped (remove the seeds)
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 big onion, finely chopped
• 4 tbsp. of olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375ºF.
2. Boil 2 cups of water with a bit of salt, add the spinach (chopped) and wait until it gets to a bright green color, just a couple of minutes.
3. Rinse.
4. Mix the cottage cheese, cooked spinach and the half of the mozzarella until blended.
5. Spread the mix over the cooked pasta and roll up tightly.
6. Place over a baking dish seams down.
7. Top with tomato sauce, and cover with the rest of the mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until it’s completely heated.

Home cooked tomato sauce:

1. Heat a pot at medium temperature, add the olive oil.
2. Add the onion and garlic, and sauté until the onion gets translucid.
3. Add the tomatoes and let it cook at least 1 ½ hours. Adding water when necessary.
4. Add the salt and pepper.
5. At this point, you can decide to blend it (for a uniform texture) or to use as is, if you’d like a more rustic sauce.

Tips:

If you’d like, you can also buy canned Passata (which is just natural tomatoes processed) and add it to the sauce at the beginning of the preparation.
If you feel the sauce is too “acid” – tomatoes tend to be – you may add a tbsp. of sugar to get to your desire taste.