Italian Cold Cut Lasagna Rollups

Bryan Station is 4-0. Clay has fifty-two tackles through four games, a pace that is — according to the Herald-Leader, which ran an actual article, not a blurb but an article, with a photo of Clay mid-tackle that I may have purchased fifteen copies of — on pace to break the school record. The record is 143 tackles in a season, set in 2009 by a kid who went to Louisville. Clay is at fifty-two in four games. At this pace, he'd finish with over a hundred and fifty.

I bought the newspaper. Fifteen copies. Connie said five would have been sufficient. I said fifteen was barely enough. One for the refrigerator. One for my truck. One for Betty. One for each sibling. One for the frame shop, because this article is getting framed and hung on the wall next to our wedding picture, and if Connie objects, I will point out that twenty-five years of marriage entitles me to one wall decision and this is it.

The article quoted Clay: "I just try to be where the ball is. My dad taught me that paying attention is the only skill that matters." I did not teach him that. Well — I said it about the mines and about construction, and maybe he translated it to football, and maybe that's what teaching is: saying things in one context that your children apply to another.

This week I made something fall-appropriate: sausage and white bean soup with kale. This is not Betty's recipe — Betty didn't know what kale was and would have been skeptical of a vegetable that has its own public relations campaign. But it's a good soup and it's mine and it takes thirty minutes and it's the kind of thing I make on a Tuesday when I want something hearty but don't have fourteen hours for a brisket.

Brown a pound of Italian sausage (I use hot) in a pot, breaking it up. Remove. Sauté diced onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in the sausage fat. Add a can of white beans (cannellini or great northern, drained), four cups of chicken broth, and the sausage. Simmer for fifteen minutes. Add a bunch of kale, stemmed and roughly chopped. Cook five more minutes until the kale wilts. Season with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes. Squeeze of lemon at the end. That's it. Thirty minutes. One pot. A meal that's warm and green and honest.

Connie likes this soup because it has kale and she reads articles about kale. I like it because it has sausage and I read articles about sausage. Clay likes it because it's food and he's Clay. We all find what we need in the same pot, which is, now that I think about it, a pretty good description of family.

Fifty-two tackles and a newspaper article framed on the wall — some weeks call for soup, and some weeks call for something that feels like a celebration without requiring a reservation. These Italian Cold Cut Lasagna Rollups landed on a Tuesday much like the soup did: one pot’s worth of effort, a week’s worth of satisfaction. Clay ate three of them without looking up, which, in this house, is the highest possible review.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

12 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente and drained
1/2 lb thinly sliced Italian salami
1/4 lb thinly sliced pepperoni
1/4 lb thinly sliced ham or capicola
15 oz whole-milk ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, divided
1 large egg
2 cups marinara sauce, divided
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and black pepper to taste
Fresh basil or flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spread 1 cup of marinara sauce evenly across the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
Make the ricotta filling. In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, 1 cup of the mozzarella, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, the egg, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir until smooth.
Layer the noodles. Lay cooked lasagna noodles flat on a clean work surface or sheet of parchment. Spread a generous spoonful of the ricotta mixture across each noodle, leaving a 1/2-inch border at one end.
Add the cold cuts. Layer slices of salami, pepperoni, and ham evenly over the ricotta on each noodle. Don’t be shy — overlap them slightly so every bite has meat.
Roll them up. Starting from the filled end, roll each noodle tightly into a cylinder. Place seam-side down in the prepared baking dish, fitting all 12 rollups snugly in a single layer.
Top and bake. Spoon the remaining 1 cup of marinara over the rollups. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 25 minutes.
Uncover and finish. Remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted, bubbly, and beginning to brown at the edges.
Rest and serve. Let the dish rest for 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh basil or parsley. Serve two rollups per person with extra marinara on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Italian Cold Cut Lasagna Rollups — When the Paper Says Your Kid's Name, You Make Something Worth Celebrating