Eating lasagna is a wonderful thing.  Unless you are trying to figure out calories.  It’s too easy to make a large slice, or too little.  Creating a lasagna roll instead easily solves this.  A single roll is a good portion size, especially when pair with some other protein or vegetable.

And coming in under 300 calories per roll is a nice benefit too. Full recipe is at the bottom of the post.

First up is the sauce.  The recipe below is a simple Florentine Tomato sauce.  You can add more spinach if you’d like but I was going for a more traditional sauce.

You can also use regular tomato sauce but you’ll want to let it cook for a while as most sauces are rather liquidly and you want something that will stick to the pasta.  You could also try adding some tomato paste to thicken up the sauce.

The cheese filling is similar to the sauce in that it’s very sticky and not overflowing.  The goat cheese adds the stickiness, the mozzarella as that good cheesy flavor, and the Pecorino Romano adds both a binder and saltiness to the dish.

To mix them together it helps if the goat cheese is at room temperature.  If not, zapping just the goat cheese in the microwave for 15-30 seconds will help warm it up without cooking the rest of the cheese.  You don’t want to prematurely melt the mozzarella.

Boil the Lasagna noodles, lay them out on a flat surface, and pat dry.  Do not rinse them as doing so will remove some of the “Stickiness” that comes from boiling pasta.  Spread about 3 tablespoons along the length of the noodle leaving about an inch  on the end.  This will be used to fold over so you want to leave it bear.  You will have sauce left over that will go in the bottom of the pan and on top.

Laying the cheese on the noodles is done in a similar fashion to the sauce.  You’ll end up using a little less cheese than sauce, about 2 Tablespoons.  Try to make sure that the cheese is more in center as it will melt and spread out.  Place it all the way to the ends will result in cheese flowing out of the roll into the pan, and not ending up on your plate.

You top the whole thing off with a whole basil leaf on top.  Feel free to add any other “fresh herbs at this stage, although I chose to keep it simple.  If you add too many flavors, you’ll lose the individual flavors.

Here’s also the final step to make sure everything is in place.  Once you roll it, you can’t really unroll it.

Before rolling place about half of the remaining sauce into a glass baking dish.  This will keep the pasta from sticking to the pan when you cook it.

To roll the pasta pick up the end that was left bare and slowly roll it.  You want to make sure it stays relatively tight, although you don’t want to squeeze it.

Once rolled, place into the glass pan.  Repeat the process for all the rolls.  At this point you can cover and place in a the fridge for baking at a later time.

In theory you could place each roll onto a cooking sheet and place in the freezer.  After a few hours you can remove it from the sheet and move to a freezer bag for later use.

Once ready to be cooked, place alumnimum foil over the pasta.  You want to make sure that it cooks slowly.  Leaving it uncovered will result in dry pasta and burnt cheese.  If you refrigerated it (or froze it) you’ll want to bring it close to room temperature before cooking it.  Cooking while very cold or frozen will result in a lot of water coming from the pasta leaving it dry.

Place in the oven at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Then remove aluminum foil and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven when the cheese is slightly browning.  Let it cool for a few minutes and serve.

Store any unused portions for later use.  Only will require a  bit of microwaving to enjoy again.

Lasagna Rolls
Serves 5
284 calories per roll 

Ingredients
2oz Goat Cheese
2 cups Mozzarella Shreds
1/4 cup Pecorino Romano Cheese
1 Tablespoon butter
1 small Onion, sliced thin
5 cloves garlic minced
1 1/2 cups Crushed Tomatoes
1 cup Baby Spinach, lightly chopped
5 Basil Leaves
5 Lasagna Noodles

1. Set oven to 450.  Boil the Lasagna noodles and set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a small pan.  Once butter is melted add onion and garlic.  Sautee. Add tomatoes and spinach.  cook until throughly combined.  Sauce should not have a lot of liquid.  Set aside.
3. Mix together the Goat cheese, Mozzarella, and Pecorino Romano together in a bowl.
4. Place Noodles out on a flat surface.  Spread 3 Tablespoons of the Tomato Sauce along the noodle, leaving about an inch on one side.  Place 2 Tablespoons of the cheese mixture along the length of the noodle.  Place 1 basil leaf on top.  repeat with the remaining Noodles. You should have some sauce and cheese mixture left. Take half of the tomato mixture and place at the bottom of a glass pan. Reserve the rest.
5. Starting with the empty side, roll the noodle into a spiral and place in the glass pan.  Repeat with the other noodles.
6. Place remaining sauce and cheese on top.  Cover with Aluminum foil.  Place in oven for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and cook for another 10 minutes.  Remove and let cool a few minutes before serving.