White Chicken Lasagna Roll Ups -- The Soup Person’s Comfort on a Cold Night

The weather has turned genuinely cold for Charleston, which means fifties during the day and forties at night, which I know is not cold by any Northern standard but which, in the Lowcountry, constitutes winter preparation. I wore a coat to the library for the first time since March and felt the particular pleasure of re-encountering a garment that has been in the closet for seven months.

Mama called on Tuesday with news: Joy has been invited to participate in a cooking class at the community center in Beaufort. It is a class for adults with cognitive disabilities, and it focuses on simple recipes. Joy is thrilled. She told Mama she wants to learn to make "Naomi's soup," by which she means she-crab soup, which is not a simple recipe by any measure, but the fact that Joy associates me with a specific soup — that I have become, in her mind, the person who makes this particular thing — is so touching that I had to sit down when Mama told me.

I am not sentimental by nature. But Joy calls me "the soup person" and I am undone. There are people in this world who see you more clearly than you see yourself, and Joy — who cannot do algebra or drive a car or remember what she ate for breakfast — sees me with a clarity that is almost unbearable. I make soup. I am the soup person. If that is my legacy in the mind of the person I love most in the world, it is enough.

At the library, I am training Priya to handle the winter programming schedule while I take some personal days for Thanksgiving. She is capable and eager and occasionally over-enthusiastic in a way that I find both exhausting and touching.

I made Brunswick stew this week — the thick, hearty, meat-and-vegetable stew that the South claims and every Southern state claims differently. The South Carolina version, which is Mama's version and therefore the correct version, uses chicken and whatever vegetables are available, which in November means potatoes, corn, lima beans, and tomatoes from the canned stock. It is the kind of food that requires a cold day and a large pot and the willingness to let it cook for three hours while you do something else, which today was reading and also thinking about Joy calling me the soup person and wondering if I have ever received a more meaningful compliment.

Brunswick stew is a three-hour commitment, and I mean that as a compliment — it asks something of you, and it gives back accordingly. But on the nights when I want that same deep, unhurried warmth without the large pot and the long afternoon, I turn to these white chicken lasagna roll ups, which have become my cold-weather second language. Joy calling me “the soup person” has me thinking about all the ways warmth moves between people in kitchens, and this dish — creamy, generous, and genuinely comforting — feels like a fair extension of that same instinct. It is the kind of thing Priya asked me to write down so she could make it herself, which I took as the highest possible compliment from someone who once photographed her own mise en place.

White Chicken Lasagna Roll Ups

Prep Time: 25 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 12 lasagna noodles
• 2 1/2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
• 15 oz whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 1/2 cups jarred or homemade Alfredo sauce
• Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and spread 1/2 cup of Alfredo sauce across the bottom in an even layer.
2. Cook the noodles. Boil lasagna noodles in well-salted water according to package directions until just al dente. Drain, lay flat on a lightly oiled baking sheet to prevent sticking, and let cool enough to handle.
3. Make the filling. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, shredded chicken, spinach, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 1/4 cup Parmesan, egg, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir until evenly combined.
4. Fill and roll. Lay each noodle flat and spread a generous 3 tablespoons of filling along its full length, leaving a 1/2-inch border at one end. Roll each noodle snugly from the filled end and place seam-side down in the prepared baking dish.
5. Sauce and top. Pour the remaining Alfredo sauce evenly over the rolled noodles. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan across the top.
6. Bake covered. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling around the edges.
7. Finish uncovered. Remove the foil and bake an additional 12–15 minutes, until the cheese is golden and lightly spotted. Let rest 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 530 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 24g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 720mg