Cheat’s Easy Lasagne with Creamy Spinach
A quick & easy lasagne
You might be wondering what makes this easy lasagne a cheat? What you can’t see is that it’s taken half the time! No need to make a béchamel sauce and no layering up bolognese with sheets of lasagne. Just make a quick and rich marinara sauce to pour over your broken pasta sheets then finish with a creamy cheese & spinach topping. Pop in the oven for half an hour and enjoy!
Less than 10 simple ingredients
You’ll probably already have most of what you need in your cupboards such as tinned tomatoes, garlic, lasagne sheets. Also as a bonus it only uses 9 ingredients! The Cheat’s Lasagne is a great weekday dinner idea with its simplicity and speed. The leftovers taste just as good the next day too, ideal for lunch.
- ½ a jar of sun-dried tomatoes
- 4 Cloves of garlic 2 sliced 2 peeled
- 2 x 400g tins of Plum tomatoes
- 120g Fresh spinach around half a packet
- 250g Dried lasagne sheets roughly cracked into thirds
- 170g (1 small tub) DF cream cheese
- 50g Grated DF cheese
- 1 tsp Ground nutmeg
- Salt & pepper
What makes this marinara sauce so tasty?
The addition of sun-dried tomatoes adds a silky richness. Heat the tomatoes and their oils in a frying pan until hot then stir through the garlic. Let the garlic become fragrant before adding the tinned tomatoes. Once this has heated gently and starting to bubble, use a handheld stick blender to whizz it up. Once you have a velvety smooth marinara sauce you can season to taste. It really is that simple and delicious!
Creamy spinach topping
Instead of making a béchamel sauce, just stir through steamed spinach with cream cheese and cheddar, I used dairy free cheese. Add a little ground nutmeg – this really does make all of the difference! Then finish the dish with the creamy spinach before baking in the oven for half an hour.
Cheat’s Easy Lasagne
Ingredients
- ½ a jar of sun-dried tomatoes
- 4 Cloves of garlic 2 sliced 2 peeled
- 2 400g tins of Plum tomatoes
- 120g Fresh spinach around half a packet
- 250g Dried lasagne sheets roughly cracked into thirds
- 170g (1 small tub) DF cream cheese
- 50g Grated DF cheese
- 1 tsp Ground nutmeg
- Salt & pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C and start making the sauce. Pour the sun-dried tomatoes into a large saucepan over a high heat and let the oil get hot before adding your sliced garlic. Turn down the heat to medium and let the garlic gently fry for a minute until fragrant and starting to brown.
- Tip in the plum tomatoes, season then blitz with a hand held blender until smooth. Leave to simmer whilst prepping the rest.
- Boil the spinach with the garlic cloves and remove once wilted. Using the same water add your lasagne shards and simmer for 10 minutes or until the sheets are tender. Stir occasionally to stop them sticking together.
- Meanwhile, chop the spinach and garlic together then mix together in a bowl with the cream cheese, grated cheese, ground nutmeg, and season to taste with salt & pepper.
- Drain your lasagne sheets and pour them into in a large baking dish followed by your sauce. Mix and tear apart any sheets that may have stuck to together. Dollop the spinach and cheese mix over the top and swirl around a bit.
- Cover with tinfoil and bake for 20 minutes, remove the tinfoil and let it crispen around the edges for the remaining 10 minutes. Serve with a green salad and light vinaigrette.
You can find more tasty food ideas on my blog. Or why not take a look at my Mushroom Risotto recipe for some more Italian inspiration. You can also take check out my Instagram too where you can keep up to date with recipes I make.