The Best Spinach Lasagna Recipe

The ultimate creamy, cheesy, spinach lasagna

Why It Works

  • Sautéing the spinach instead of blanching or microwaving it improves flavor, while chopping allows you to evenly incorporate it into every bite.
  • A mixture of smoothly processed ricotta and ricotta that hasn't been in the food processor gives the lasagna a creamy flavor while still maintaining the classic small curds of ricotta in the finished dish.
  • Stacks and stacks of fresh pasta make this dish about the pasta, not just the fillings.

I'm not really much of a sleeper. No matter how often I try and no matter what method I take, I simply can't get into bed and nod off until four or five hours before I have to wake up. For a while this concerned me (and particularly concerned my wife), but to be honest, I don't feel tired, and I kind of enjoy those extra four hours I get all to myself.

A slice of spinach lasagna, shot from the side so that all of the layers are visible.

Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

What is it that keeps me up late at night? Admittedly sometimes it's ridiculous things like The Walking Dead or Reddit or de-skunking my silly dog after he gets sprayed in the face at 2 a.m. But more often than not, I'm up cooking. Sure, I cook for work, and I do it almost all day every day, but I also cook to relax, and there is little to me that is more relaxing or therapeutic than putting together a carefully constructed lasagna, whether it's traditional Bolognese, creamy mushroom or Brussels sprouts, or a rich and hearty squash lasagna.

My wife tells me I need to learn how to relax. I think I manage just fine.

I find pleasure in preparing each of the separate fillings and balancing their flavors. Joy in spreading layers of thin pasta with just enough filling to coat. I sit in front of the oven with my face pressed up against the glass as the lasagna transforms from layered pasta into a bubbly, browned, irresistible casserole.

A slice of spinach lasagna, with the remaining lasagna beside it.

Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

Today we're going to look at another one of the classics. Creamy, cheesy, spinach lasagna flavored with a hint of nutmeg and a combination of besciamella (that's Italian for "white sauce") and fresh ricotta. And while I'll often opt for the ease and convenience of no-boil lasagna noodles, today we're going to go with store-bought fresh pasta. There are a few subtle but significant differences in how to handle fresh noodles.

Let's dive right into the deep end of this rich, creamy pool, alright?

The Best Way to Prepare Your Spinach

This is a spinach lasagna, so we want that spinach flavor front and center. I've tried a few different types of spinach over the years including frozen, fresh flat leaf, curly leaf, and baby, and I find that you get the best flavor and texture with fresh flat or curly leafed spinach. They don't have the pulpy, mushy texture of cooked baby spinach (plus they're cheaper), and they have significantly better flavor than frozen spinach, which can taste muddy and occasionally has fibrous stalks included.

I started out by cooking my spinach using a method that Cook's Illustrated recommends, blanching it in boiling water just until wilted. I find the process a little cumbersome, particularly because the spinach ends up absorbing way more water than it needs to, leading to diluted flavor.

Microwaving it in a bowl is a little better, but doesn't offer you the opportunity to buttress its flavor with some aromatics.

The best method? Sautéing. I start by sweating some shallots and garlic in a mixture of butter and olive oil (for superior flavor), then adding in the spinach a few handfuls at a time until it's fully wilted. From there I let it cook down, letting any juices that are expelled reduce until the pan looks completely dry.

But looking completely dry and being completely dry are two separate things. I found out the hard way that it's extremely important to remove as much excess liquid from your spinach as possible if you want to end up with consistent, reliable results. Place the cooked spinach in a strainer and press on it with a spatula until you extract those last couple tablespoons of residual moisture.

The last question is how to incorporate that spinach. Some recipes call for simply scattering the roughly chopped wilted leaves in between each layer all willy nilly. Once upon a time I used this method as well. It's easy to do, but it doesn't make for ideal eating—whole leaves of spinach slide out of your lasagna with each bite.

Sauteed spinach chopped in a food processor

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt


Much better is to chop that spinach by pulsing it in the food processor, then combining it with some of your cheese mixture to really disperse it evenly.

Speaking of cheese, let's speak about cheese a bit, ok?

How to Get the Cheesiest Spinach Lasagna

I knew that extra creaminess was my goal here, and I started off by making a cheese-spiked standard besciamella to bind everything together. It's nice enough, but it didn't have the rich cheese flavor of a lasagna made with ricotta. The problem? Most store-bought ricotta is terrible, and I mean really terrible.

See, in order to save money, instead of carefully forming curds and draining away excess water the way they should, most major label brands will add gums and stabilizers designed to help keep that extra water bound inside the mixture. The result is ricotta that is blander (after all, the milky flavor is watered down) and has an odd, gum-like texture that bears little resemblance to the real deal.

There are a couple of solutions. The first is to make the ricotta yourself. With our simple stovetop method, you can get fresh ricotta on the counter in about 30 minutes, though you'll need to make multiple batches for the quantity required for a large lasagna like this.

Alternatively, you can seek out quality brands. If you've got a good local dairy, freshly made ricotta can't be beat. At the supermarket, check your labels for ricotta that contains nothing more than milk, salt, and either a starter or some acid.

Calabro-brand whole milk ricotta

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Calabro is a fantastic brand that's available at Whole Foods. Make sure you pick up their full-fat ricotta—the low fat versions have had stabilizers added to make up for their excess wateriness.

Your last option? Skip the ricotta and use cottage cheese instead. It may sound odd, but the two products are made in a very similar manner and once incorporated into the lasagna, the cottage cheese comes out beautifully creamy. Some folks actually prefer the end results you get from the cottage cheese over true ricotta!

The simplest way to incorporate whichever cheese you choose is to simply use it as-is, folding an egg into it to help bind it a bit as it bakes, but I find that ricotta added this way comes out a little pebbly and dry. Instead, I like to take half of the ricotta and whiz it up in a food processor with an egg, a healthy amount of Parmesan cheese for extra flavor, and some freshly grated nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

Half of the ricotta processed until smooth

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

To that, I fold in my chopped spinach along with the other half of the ricotta. By incorporating the ricotta in two different forms, you get an end result that is rich and creamy, but still has the signature small curds of ricotta interspersed throughout.

Comté and Gruyère cheeses

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Finally, some freshly grated mozzarella and Comté, Gruyère or Emmentaler cheese combined with some of that besciamella take the whole thing over the top.

Make Pasta the Star With Fresh Lasagna Noodles

I'm generally a huge advocate of those flat-rolled, no-boil lasagna noodles. They work particularly well if you soak them in water while you're putting together your fillings. But no matter how convenient they are, they never have quite the same resilient bite as fresh pasta sheets do, and sometimes you just need to go all in, even if it's at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday.

Fresh pasta sheets cut down to size with a pizza wheel

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Working with fresh store-bought pasta sheets is pretty easy. I make a big stack of them and use a pizza wheel to cut them into the right shape and size. Remember, fresh pasta will expand when you cook it, so you need to account for that when cutting. I subtract about an inch from each side when cutting.

Fresh lasagna noodles don't need to be par-cooked, but raw noodles stacked into a lasagna will absorb quite a bit of moisture from the fillings. I find it's much easier to gauge the finished texture of the lasagna if you par-cook them.

Batch cooking fresh pasta in salted water

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Par-cook your cut noodles a few at a time in a big pot of salted boiling water. They should be cooked until very, very al dente—less than a minute in the water will do.

Running freshly cooked pasta under cold water

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Transfer them to the sink and run them under cold water, gently unfolding the sheets and taking care not to tear them.

Drying rinsed pasta sheets on dish towels

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Lay the rinsed sheets out on a layer of clean kitchen towels, then repeat with the remaining noodles. To save space, I like to place a layer of noodles on one half of a towel, fold the other half over, then layer my next noodles on top of that. I repeat with as many towels as I need.

Dried no-boil noodles absorb liquid and get extra-thick when cooking, so it's tough to stack more than five to six layers of them in a single lasagna pan. When I'm using fresh noodles, I like to take a more traditional approach and really make the pasta the star of the show. I'll go for 12 layers or even more.

Stack and Go: Assembling Your Lasagna

We've got our cheesy besciamella, our spinach and ricotta mixture, and our noodles, which leaves us with the most therapeutic, enjoyable part of all: stacking.

Ladling a thin layer of white sauce on the bottom of the baking dish

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

I like to start with a thin layer of besciamella on the bottom of my greased lasagna pan to gives that bottom layer of noodles something to stick to.

Laying down the first layer of pasta over white sauce

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

In goes a layer of pasta.

Laying down a thin layer of spinach mixture over pasta sheets

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Followed by a thin, thin coating of the spinach mixture. Remember: 12 layers to go here! It's ok if there are bare spots of pasta showing, everything will settle and shift as it bakes anyhow.

A little drizzle of besciamella goes on next.

Smoothing out white sauce with the back of a spatula

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

I smooth it out with the back of a spatula.

Completed layers of pasta, spinach, and white sauce

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

I repeat the process until I've used up both the pasta and the spinach mixture.

Topping lasagna stack with grated cheese

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

For the very top layer, I mix things up a bit by incorporating some plain grated cheese. This gives the top an extra gooey, stretchy coating.

One more layer of besciamella to bind it all together, and it's ready for the oven.

To get the cheese nicely melted, I start by covering the lasagna with foil for the first 15 minutes of its 30- to 40-minute bake time. After that the foil comes off and the lasagna keeps baking until bubbly and browned all around.

You may find that with fresh lasagna noodles, you'll end up with quite a bit of puffing due to water vapor getting trapped in between layers of pasta. If you peek into your oven (or like me, sit there riveted to the glass for the entire 40 minutes) and notice that there is a bulge in the middle of your lasagna, just poke it with a sharp paring knife, twisting the knife a bit to open up an escape route for that trapped steam.

For the Best Texture, Rest Lasagna Before Serving

When the lasagna is beautiful and browned, and smells even better, then it's ready to come out of the oven. You'll be tempted to jump right in, but for best texture, let it rest for about 10 minutes before cutting in and serving.

Serving up a slice of Creamy Spinach Lasagna

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

And for you red sauce lovers...

Creamy Spinach Lasagna with Tomato Sauce

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

When I made a quick inquiry over on Twitter, there was an overwhelming reply that a good spinach lasagna should have no tomato sauce. That said, there was a strong vocal minority who actually liked the combination of tomato and spinach. I say feel free to add a couple cups of tomato sauce to interspersed into the layers here and there. Might I be so bold as to suggest my Slow-Cooked Italian-American Red Sauce as a suitable candidate?

November 2014

Recipe Details

The Best Spinach Lasagna Recipe

Prep 20 mins
Cook 100 mins
Active 60 mins
Total 2 hrs
Serves 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

For the Spinach:

  • 2 tablespoons butter, divided

  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

  • 1 shallot, finely minced (about 1/2 cup)

  • 6 medium garlic cloves, minced (about 2 tablespoons)

  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • 2 pounds fresh flat or curly spinach leaves, washed and dried

For the Ricotta:

  • 2 pounds fresh ricotta cheese(see notes)

  • 2 large eggs

  • 4 ounces finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

  • 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

For the White Sauce:

  • 4 tablespoons butter

  • 1/4 cup flour

  • 1 quart (4 cups) whole milk

  • 12 ounces grated low moisture mozzarella cheese

  • 12 ounces grated Comté, Gruyère, or Emmentaler cheese

For Assembly:

  • 1 1/2 pounds (enough sheets to make 12 layers) fresh lasagna noodles

Directions

  1. For the Spinach: Heat olive oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add shallots and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and fragrant, about 1 minute. Add a few large handfuls of spinach and cook, stirring, until wilted. Continue adding spinach a handful at a time until it is all in the pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until spinach expels its moisture and most of that moisture evaporates, leaving a dry bottom as you stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

    The blanched spinach, being mixed with a spatula in a saucepan.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  2. Transfer spinach to a fine mesh strainer set over the sink and press out excess moisture with a rubber spatula. Let spinach continue to drain as you prepare the ricotta mixture.

    The spinach being drained of liquid in a fine mesh strainer, with a spatula pressing down on it to extract more liquid.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  3. For the Ricotta: Transfer half of the ricotta, both eggs, the Parmesan, and the nutmeg to the bowl of a food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Process until completely smooth, about 1 minute.

    The ricotta, mixed, inside of the food processor.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  4. Transfer mixture to a large bowl but do not wipe out food processor. Transfer spinach to food processor and pulse until finely chopped, 10 to 12 short pulses. Add spinach and remaining ricotta to the ricotta mixture and fold gently to combine.

    The ricotta being mixed with cooked and processed spinach in a metal bowl.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  5. For the White Sauce: Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add flour and increase heat to medium high. Cook, stirring butter and flour with a whisk until paled golden blond, about 1 minute. Whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in milk. Continue to cook, whisking frequently, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from heat and add 3/4 of mozzarella and Comté, Gruyère, or Emmenthale cheese. Whisk until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

    A collage showing the white sauce being made.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  6. To Assemble: Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta sheets a few at a time and cook until barely tender, about 45 seconds. Transfer to a fine mesh strainer and run under cool water until well chilled. Transfer to a clean kitchen towel in a single layer. Continue until all pasta is par-cooked and dried.

    The cooked lasagna laid out on a dish towel to cool.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  7. Drizzle a small amount of white sauce over the bottom of a lasagna pan or large casserole. Add a layer of noodles. Top with 1/12th of spinach mixture and 1/12th of remaining white sauce. Continue layering pasta, spinach, and white sauce until you lay down the top sheet of pasta.

    A two-image collage showing the lasagna being assembled.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  8. Spread remaining spinach mixture evenly over the top. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Comté or Emmentaler cheese and drizzle with remaining white sauce. Spread into an even layer with a rubber spatula.

    The lasagna in a baking dish with the final layer of cheese being applied to the surface.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

  9. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking until bubble and lightly browned, about 20 minutes longer. Let rest at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes, then slice and serve.

    The fully cooked lasagna in the baking dish with browned edges.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

    A slice of spinach lasagna on a ceramic plate, with a cloth and the remaining lasagna behind it.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

Special Equipment

Large baking dish or lasagna pan, food processor

Notes

Most store-bought ricotta is terrible. Look for a brand like Calabro, which contains nothing more than milk, salt, and either an acid or starter. If quality ricotta is unavailable, substitute cottage cheese instead.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
742 Calories
39g Fat
58g Carbs
41g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8 to 10
Amount per serving
Calories 742
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 39g 50%
Saturated Fat 21g 105%
Cholesterol 196mg 65%
Sodium 954mg 41%
Total Carbohydrate 58g 21%
Dietary Fiber 3g 10%
Total Sugars 8g
Protein 41g
Vitamin C 10mg 51%
Calcium 1003mg 77%
Iron 7mg 37%
Potassium 943mg 20%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)