Thursday, February 21, 2008

Spinach Roll-Ups

Have you seen the commercials for The Olive Garden's new Lasagna Rollatini with Chicken? I have. And everytime I do I curse the fact that we live an hour and a half from Little Rock. Actually, the first thing I do is drool. Then I sob. Then I curse. WD is one lucky man, huh? Since it is unlikely that the town I live in (population 511) will ever get an Olive Garden restaurant, I have had to improvise.

One of my favorite recipes is Spinach Roll-Ups with Parmesan Sauce. Now, to copy The Olive Garden's new rollatini (like I did in the picture above), just add chicken, some reserved sauce, a chopped sun dried tomato, and parsley. But, trust me, you really don't need all that froufrou stuff, the spinach roll-ups are perfect by themselves.

8-10 lasagna noodles, cooked according to pkg directions
10 oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
16 oz cottage cheese
4 TBS Parmesan cheese
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp pepper

While lasagna noodles cook, mix together remaining ingredients for filling. Spread a few TBS on each cooked noodle, and roll up end to end. Stand up in a 2-quart casserole dish.

Sauce:
3 TBS butter
3 TBS flour
2 cups milk
6 oz pkg Parmesan (minus the 4 TBS for the filling)

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add flour and brown. Add milk and whisk until there are no lumps. Add Parmesan and continue to stir until cheese is melted.
Pour over roll-ups and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.