The first meal I made for Mac when we started dating in 2009 was lasagna. It wasn’t my finest cooking experience. I decided to bake the whole package of lasagna in a loaf pan, and it took about two hours to cook. Flash forward to 2010. We had just moved in together and were adulting with our brand new Sam’s Club membership. I always peruse the cookbook section, and we bought a cookbook because it had a recipe for lasagna rolls on the cover.
After we made it a few times, I’ve tweaked the recipe a few times to the ingredients that we like. We go for pizza-style toppings (aka pepperoni). The larger pepperoni you find in your grocery store’s deli section work best for these lasagna rolls. I think it would be a bit challenging to use regular ground beef though you could try meatballs. I also like to doctor up the ricotta cheese before we assemble the lasagna rolls. The Italian seasoning adds some nice flavor, and the egg gives the ricotta a bit more structure to help it spread across the lasagna noodles.
You will want to let the noodles cool before you make the rolls. I drain the hot water and refill the pot with cold water to cover the noodles. This cools them down quickly and allows you to handle the noodles right away. Holding the noodles in the cold water also helps keep the cooked noodles from sticking together in one big blob.
These lasagna rolls are also a perfect freezer meal option. When I’ve made them to freeze, I take a few round disposable cake pans (normally 8 inches). I eyeball the amount of marinara sauce I need to cover the bottom of the pan (probably 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup?). From there, I divide the finished rolls evenly across the pans. All of this is very vague, but I normally am able to get three pans of about 8 lasagna rolls from a standard box of lasagna. I top the rolls with some more marinara sauce and a handful of cheese. From there, I cover the pan tightly with a piece of aluminum foil and stick in the freezer. To bake from frozen, I put the pan in a cold oven, turn it on to 350, and bake it for 45 minutes to an hour.
Lasagna rolls
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 6 1x
Ingredients
- 1 box of lasagna noodles, cooked and cooled
- 1 large jar of marinara sauce
- 16 ounce package of ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp. of Italian seasoning
- 1 package of smoked provolone cheese or fresh mozzarella
- 1 package of deli pepperoni (the big ones)
- 1 bag of shredded Italian cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix ricotta cheese, egg, Italian seasoning, and 1 cup of shredded cheese until smooth.
- Spray a 9×13 pan with non-stick spray. Spoon roughly 1 cup of marinara sauce on the bottom of the pan.
- Unroll each cooked piece of lasagna. Spread 2-3 tablespoons of ricotta mixture evenly across each noodle.
- Cut pepperoni in half. Place 3 pepperoni (6 halves) on each noodle.
- Top with 1-2 slices of provolone (again sliced in half). Carefully roll up and place seam side down in the pan.
- Repeat with all noodles. Cover lasagna rolls in remaining marinara sauce.
- Top off with remaining shredded cheese.
- Bake 20-25 minutes until cheese is browned and bubbly.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 25
Enjoy!
