Four Cheese Sausage Spinach Lasagna

Cody is on day five hundred and one of his sentence. The fiftieth Saturday visit was Saturday morning. I want to put on the page that the fiftieth visit lands on the calendar in a way the forty-ninth and the forty-eighth did not, because fifty is the kind of round number a person can hold in their hand. Mama and I have been driving to the unit on Saturday mornings for fifty Saturdays. The lobby line. The metal detector. The lockers for the purses. The thirty-minute window at the round metal tables. The drive home in silence we have decided we do not need to fill on the way back.

Cody has 169 days remaining of the original sentence. The early-release-with-good-behavior path that would have him out in November is on track. He has finished the GED program at the unit. He has finished the carpentry vocational. He has been in the substance-abuse recovery group for sixteen months without missing a meeting. He has seven workshop pieces in the chapbook and the addendum, and an essay about Mr. Garcia in draft. The probation officer file is the kind of file that opens early-release doors. November twelfth is the date Mama and I have on the calendar in the closet, in pencil, with a circle around it.

And the news Tuesday: Carlos came back from his Padre Island vacation. He had me in the back office at three-fifteen Tuesday afternoon, the same chair as the original promotion conversation last August. He read me the next pay-rate review. The shift-lead permanent role is now $10.75 an hour with a twenty-five-cent bump if I hit all closing-shift targets in May. The closing-shift targets are: cash drawer reconciles to the penny, no employee complaints filed, no customer complaints, all opening prep ready for the morning shift. I have hit all four targets in April and the first two weeks of May. The bump is going to be retroactive to the start of May when it lands.

The recipe Sunday was four cheese sausage spinach lasagna because the recipe was a milestone-celebration dinner and the moment called for one. The recipe is from A Family Feast and is the kind of pan I would not have considered six months ago. Lasagna noodles layered with crumbled Italian sausage, sauteed fresh spinach, ricotta dolloped in pockets, mozzarella, parmesan, and fontina, with a homemade marinara from one of my pantry-shelf jars from the March 2017 canning project. Sixteen pings, sixteen jars on the shelf, four jars used since last September, twelve jars left.

The math: lasagna noodles $1.49, a pound of mild Italian sausage from the markdown rack $2.99, a 5-ounce bag of fresh baby spinach $1.99, a 15-ounce container of ricotta $2.99, an 8-ounce bag of shredded mozzarella $1.99, a small block of parmesan $0.50 worth from the wedge in the fridge, a small block of fontina $3.99 (on Aldi sale this week), a pint jar of canned marinara from the pantry shelf (free, made in March 2017), garlic, herbs, salt. Total: about $15.94 for a 9-by-13 pan that fed Mama and me for four meals.

The technique is the layered build with par-cooked noodles. You boil the lasagna noodles to three minutes shy of done — the noodles will keep cooking in the oven and overcooked-then-baked noodles are mush. You drain. You rinse with cold water briefly to stop the cook and to prevent the noodles from sticking. You sauteed the fresh spinach in a tablespoon of olive oil with a clove of minced garlic until just wilted, two minutes; you squeeze the wilted spinach in a clean dish towel to remove excess water before layering.

You combine the ricotta in a small bowl with one egg, a half cup of grated parmesan, salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of dried oregano. The egg is the binder that holds the ricotta in pockets during the bake; without the egg the ricotta runs into the sauce. You shred the fontina coarsely on a box grater — the fontina is the upgrade cheese; do not skip.

You assemble in a buttered 9-by-13 pan. A thin layer of marinara on the bottom. A layer of par-cooked noodles. Half the cooked sausage. Half the wilted spinach. Half the ricotta mixture dolloped in pockets — do not spread; let the ricotta stay in pockets so the layers stay distinct. A handful of mozzarella. A handful of fontina. Repeat: noodles, sausage, spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, fontina. Top with a final layer of noodles, the rest of the marinara, the rest of the mozzarella and fontina, a final dusting of parmesan.

You bake at 375 for thirty minutes covered with foil so the cheese melts without the top burning, then fifteen more minutes uncovered for the brown bubbly cheese top. You let the pan rest for ten minutes before cutting; lasagna cut while too hot collapses into a wet mess.

I served it Sunday at six-thirty. Mama got home from her shift at six-fifteen. She walked into the kitchen and the smell of garlic and sausage and herbs hit her at the back door. She said, baby, what is this for, and I said, fifty visits, Mama, and she sat down and she had two big squares and she said, baby, this is the kind of pan that justifies a celebration.

The fiftieth visit. The home stretch in view. The four-cheese pan on the table. November twelfth on the calendar.

The recipe is below, the way A Family Feast wrote it. The four cheeses are the upgrade — ricotta in pockets in the middle (with the egg binder, do not skip), mozzarella throughout, parmesan and fontina layered on top. Use your own home-canned marinara if you have any; jarred marinara is a fine substitute. Par-cook the noodles to three minutes shy of done; rinse cold to stop the cook. Bake covered, then uncovered, then rest. The rest is non-negotiable.

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 55 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes | Servings: 10

Ingredients

12 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente and drained
1 lb Italian sausage (mild or hot), casings removed
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed very dry
1 (25 oz) jar marinara sauce
1 (14.5 oz) can crushed tomatoes
15 oz whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 large egg
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup shredded provolone cheese, divided
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 cup shredded fontina cheese
1 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning, divided
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Olive oil for the pan

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with olive oil and set aside.
Brown the sausage. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the Italian sausage, breaking it up with a spoon, until browned and cooked through, about 7—8 minutes. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 4 minutes more. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook 1 minute until fragrant.
Build the meat sauce. Pour the marinara and crushed tomatoes into the skillet with the sausage mixture. Stir in 1 tsp of the Italian seasoning and season with salt and pepper. Simmer on medium-low for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.
Mix the ricotta filling. In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, egg, fontina, half of the Parmesan (6 tbsp), the remaining 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Fold in the squeezed dry spinach until evenly combined.
Layer the lasagna. Spread a thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Lay 3 noodles over the sauce. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over the noodles, then top with 1/4 of the remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the mozzarella and 1/3 of the provolone. Repeat these layers two more times (noodles, ricotta, sauce, cheese). For the final layer, lay the last 3 noodles, top with the remaining meat sauce, the remaining mozzarella, the remaining provolone, and the remaining Parmesan.
Bake covered. Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil (tent it slightly so the foil doesn’t stick to the cheese). Bake for 35 minutes.
Bake uncovered. Remove the foil and bake an additional 15—20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown in spots and the edges are beginning to crisp.
Rest before serving. Remove from the oven and let the lasagna rest, uncovered, for at least 15 minutes before slicing. This allows the layers to set so you get clean, beautiful pieces.

Nutrition (per serving)

Four Cheese Sausage Spinach Lasagna — The Fiftieth-Visit Sunday Pan