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My mother used to make lasagna with dried noodles, which she would
carefully boil until al dente before layering them into the pan with an assortment
of fillings. And it was good.
Then someone said you
didn’t need to boil the noodles first, that the sauce in the pan would cook
them perfectly. And they were right. Those were even better.
Then fresh pasta came
along and turned lasagna a couple of degrees more divine because of the lush
texture that only freshly made noodles can provide.
And then I wanted
lasagna one day, really bad, and didn’t have either dried or fresh lasagna noodles,
and didn’t really want to go to the trouble of making homemade pasta. Yes, it’s
definitely worth the trouble. But once in a while you just have to let laziness
win, for sometimes - just sometimes - laziness leads to delicious things because
lazy people are inventors. (That’s my excuse, anyway.)
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| Frozen (L) and fresh (R) |
So I started rooting
around. The pantry yielded zip by way of alternatives, but wait a minute, there
in the back of the freezer was a package of spring rolls. And what are spring
rolls but really thin egg pasta? I did some hasty calculations, realized it
would work, and got everything ready.
If you have homemade
marinara sauce ready, go with that for sure. But I write mainly about China’s
foods for my job, so I rarely go to that bother. Instead, I generally have jars
of Paul Newman or something sitting around for whenever spaghetti sauce is
needed.
And so you see, the point of this exercise is to
use whatever is available. If you don’t have ricotta cheese, try crème fraîche or drained cottage cheese.
No mozzarella? Use some other mild cheese that looks good to you. Not a meat
eater? No problem: sub in sautéed mushrooms.
Think
of lasagna as a way to effortlessly clean out the refrigerator and pantry. But
always, always have those spring
rolls ready in the freezer. Try this and you’ll see what I mean.
Whereas some lasagnas
can come across as leaden or overly starchy, this one is light and airy. That
thin pasta absorbs the marinara as it cooks, turning into gentle wisps that
glide between whatever filling strikes your fancy. This is also a great way to
prepare ahead on the weekend, since it can easily be frozen and reheated. This
is a winner.
Spring roll lasagna chez Huang
Huángjiā kăo qiāncéngmiàn 黃家烤千層麵
Italian via a short detour in China
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| Sausage & onions |
Serves 6 to 8
1 (11 ounce | 312 g, or so) package frozen spring rolls, Wei Chuan brand
recommended (see Tips)
Spray oil
1 bunch fresh spinach
2 (28 ounce | 737 g or so) jars of prepared marinara sauce, whatever
flavor and brand you prefer
12 ounces | 340 g Italian sausages of any flavor or brand, crumbled or
thinly sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, chopped
3 hardboiled eggs, sliced
1½ cups | 400 g ricotta cheese, whole milk preferred
80 ounces | 225 g whole-milk mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
1 cup | 80 g coarsely grated Parmesan cheese
 |
| Ricotta, mozzarella, & eggs |
1. Set the unopened package of spring rolls on the counter to gently
defrost while you prepare everything. Line an 11-cup | 2-liter pan with
parchment paper or foil, extending the paper or foil up the sides by about 1
inch | 2 cm, as this will give you even more room for the lasagna. Spray the
paper or foil with oil and set the pan on a baking sheet. Arrange a rack in the
center of your oven and set it to 400°F | 200°C.
2. Cut off the ends of the spinach and soak it in warm water while you
prepare the rest of the ingredients, as this will help loosen any soil. Swish
it around in the water, changing the water as needed, until absolutely every
grain of grit has been dislodged. Shake the spinach dry, shred it thinly, and
microwave big handfuls of it at a time in a heatproof bowl for 1 minutes.
Squeeze the liquid out of the spinach and set it in a work bowl. Repeat with
the rest of the spinach.
3. Set a pan over medium heat and fry the sausage until most of the fat
has been rendered. Drain off the fat, add the olive oil and onions, and fry
these until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and continue to fry
until the sausage is borderline crispy.
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| Scrunched up wrappers |
4. Spread a thin layer of the marinara sauce in the pan. Place 2 spring
roll sheets on top of the marinara sauce, scrunching them up a bit to make them
fit so that they do not overlap. Spread another layer of marinara sauce on the
sheets and add some of the meat and onion mixture, then a layer of spring
rolls, then marinara sauce, then eggs, then spring rolls, then marinara sauce,
then ricotta cheese, then spring rolls, then marinara sauce, then spinach and
mozzarella cheese, then spring rolls… in other words, just keep layering things
into the pan in whatever order you like. The only thing you need to do, really,
is top the spring rolls with marinara sauce, as this turns the noodles soft and
silky. You probably will have 25 spring roll sheets in all, so make the top
layer out of 3 scrunched-up sheets topped with marinara sauce, and then
sprinkle the Parmesan over the top. You probably won’t use all of the marinara
sauce, so don’t push it. Make sure all of the spring rolls are carefully dabbed
with the sauce, as otherwise those bits will turn hard and inedible.
5. Bake the lasagna uncovered on the baking sheet for 35 to 40 minutes,
at which point the top will be browned and the sauce will be bubbling around
the edges. Rest the lasagna for 15 to 20 minutes to give the pasta time to
absorb the sauce, for this will make cutting and serving it a whole lot less
sloppy. Cut the lasagna into squares as desired. Leftovers can be refrigerated
and heated up in the microwave. You can also make this ahead of time and bake
it for about 30 minutes, then cool it and freeze the lasagna. To reheat the lasagna,
defrost it overnight in the refrigerator, and then cook as directed above for
another 15 minutes or so, until hot all the way through.
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| Marco Polo lasagna |
Tips
Spring roll wrappers and egg roll wrappers are pretty much the same
thing, with the egg roll ones generally a little bit thicker. Use whatever you
like.
I recommend frozen over fresh ones since the latter can go bad, and you
rarely have an opportunity to notice that until you open it up, or at least that has been my experience. Plus, frozen spring roll wrappers are
ready whenever you need them. Hurray for that.
