Lasagna Roll-Ups Make Customization In Every Bite Possible

There are many different ways to make lasagna (or lasagna-adjacent-dishes, at least), with some of them being easier than others. These lasagna roll-ups, as recipe developer Kristen Carli admits, are "more challenging than traditional lasagna and [take] a bit more time." Why, then, would you want to spend the time and trouble to make them? Well, Carli says, "I would argue it is more fun" to roll up lasagna than to make it in layers. Even if you don't get your kicks by twirling pasta, though, this method does allow you to make a full pan of lasagna (or something similar) while catering to several different food preferences at the same time.

The way you do this is by making several different types of filling rather than using just one as Carli does here. Some could be meatless, others use a different type of meat like sausage, while still others incorporate different vegetables than the spinach she favors. Should you choose to bake up several different types of lasagna rolls at once, though, you might want to make use of different-colored toothpicks to help tell them apart. You could also employ some sort of quadrant system so you have, say, meat to the northwest, mushrooms to the southeast, and cheese in the other two corners.

Carli stuffs all of the lasagna roll-ups in her recipe with a combination of cooked ground beef, spinach, ricotta, and yogurt⁣ — the last of these might be seen as an unusual lasagna ingredient, but she's using it in place of the eggs that are often used to bind the cheese. She then smothers the rolls in store-bought marinara sauce and a layer of mozzarella cheese before baking them. If you're looking to make some minor tweaks to the recipe as a whole, you can use homemade sauce or opt for a different type, such as spicy arrabiata or a hearty meat sauce. Another option is to replace all or part of the mozzarella with provolone, a cheese that may not melt as prettily but tends to be quite a bit more flavorful.

Should you wish to make a pan of personalized rollups, you'd start by omitting the meat and spinach from the filling, then dividing it into portions. You could then add a smaller amount of cooked ground beef, turkey, or sausage to one and some cooked spinach or another sauteed vegetable such as eggplant, mushrooms, onions, or peppers to another. Diced pepperoni, salami, or mini meatballs also make fine lasagna mix-ins, while you could even use the roll-up concept for a white lasagna by alternating between rolls with a chicken filling and ones with plain cheese then covering them with alfredo sauce in place of marinara.