A Healthier Lasagna

I got this recipe from Food Mayhem (a blog I LOVE). It was super tasty but a little bit dried out and not enough meat sauce for my liking. Next time I think I would up the meat sauce and put in a bit extra olive oil before cooking and/or ricotta to ensure that it isn't too dry. I may also not have given an airtight covering while cooking it.

------------------------------------------------------------

Beef and Spinach Lasagna
Meat Sauce

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 pound 11 ounces (90% lean) ground beef
• 1 (28oz) can crushed tomato with basil
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 bay leaf

Cheese & Spinach Filling

• 10 ounces frozen spinach, blanched, drained and cooled
• 1 pound shredded whole milk mozzarella, divided
• 1 pound whole milk ricotta

Assembly

• 9×13 baking dish
• 16 (no boil) lasagna sheets (8″x4″ each)

*note: the lasgana sheets I used are made for 8×8 pan but I wanted to make more so I made a 9×13. It worked fine though.
Instructions -
Meat Sauce (can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated, warm before using):
1. Heat oil in a medium pot on medium high heat. Stir in onions and soften for about a minute. Add carrots and stir around for another minute. Stir in tomato paste until well distributed.
2. Add ground beef and stir around until browned, about 5 minutes.
3. Add crushed tomatoes, garlic, and bay leaf. Bring to boil. Stir and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat and remove bay leaf. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F while meat sauce cools a bit.

Cheese & Spinach Filling:
1. Ring out spinach with paper towels.
2. In a medium sized bowl , combine spinach, 8 ounces of mozzarella, and ricotta.
Assembly
1. Spread 1 cup of meat sauce on the bottom of the pan.
2. Lay 4 sheets of lasagna down. See pic.

3. Spread 1/3 of cheese and spinach filling on top of lasagna sheets. Spread a little more than 1 cup of meat sauce on top.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 two more times. Lay another layer of lasagna sheets on top. Cover with remaining meat sauce. Spread remaining mozzarella on top.

5. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Serve.