I love lasagna. I’ve been making lasagna for about 10 years and have my own recipe mixed together from favorite flavors and methods from other lasagna recipes.. This weekend I made the best lasagna to date with some methods from Cooks Illustrated (who can do no wrong, in my eyes!). I really dislike ricotta, hence the cottage cheese usage here.

Ingredients

• Enough lasagna noodles to make 4 layers of lasagna in a brownie sized pan
• 16 oz. low fat cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 20 oz. spinach, stemmed and rinsed
• 1 lb. button mushrooms, sliced
• Spaghetti sauce (Prego in a jar is my favorite for lasagna)
• 8 oz. low fat shredded mozzarella cheese
• A few tablespoons of parmesan

Instructions

For the spinach

1. Fill a large bowl with ice water, set aside. 
2. Bring a pot of water to boil, add 1 tbsp. salt, add spinach and stir until wilted. 
3. Drain and immediately add spinach to ice water to stop cooking.
4. Drain and squeeze spinach in a towel to remove all excess moisture.
5. Chop up spinach.

For the mushrooms

1. Sautee mushrooms in some garlic and olive oil until browned and no more liquid is released. This is important to not have a soggy lasagna.

For the cheese

1. Add cottage cheese and 2 eggs to food processor.
2. Process until smooth.
3. Mix cheese mixture, spinach and mushrooms in a bowl until combined.

For the lasagna noodles

1. If you are using regular lasagna noodles, boil them according to package. If you are using no-boil lasagna noodles, soak them in hot tap water for 5 mins.
2. Agitate noodles so they don’t stick together while boiling/soaking.
3. Drain and use immediately. If you let them stand, they dry up and stick.

To assemble lasagna

1. Spoon a few tbsp of spaghetti sauce on bottom of brownie pan. Shake to evenly coat bottom.
2. Add first layer of noodles.
3. Evenly cover noodles with some spaghetti sauce.
4. Spread 1/3 of cheese mixture over noodles. Sprinkle lightly with a handful of mozzarella.
5. Repeat 2-4 2 more times.
6. Spread rest of cheese mixture over noodles.
7. Cover with remaining layer of noodles.
8. Cover noodles with spaghetti sauce, making sure to cover all the edges so noodles don’t dry out.
9. Sprinkle with mozzarella until evenly covered. Shake a few tbsp of parmesan over mozzarella.
10. Cover tightly with tin foil that has been spray with cooking spray (so the cheese doesn’t stick to it).
11. Bake 30 min in 350ºF oven. Remove tin foil and continue baking until cheese is bubbly, 15 min. Let stand 15 min. Serve.