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These are a favorite in our house and they are fun to make with kids!  This would be great for a party too because it serves a lot of people.  I first got this idea from Giada and then tweaked it since she likes to use whole fat everything 🙂

Serves:  7-10

Ingredients

For the Béchamel Sauce:

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 tsp all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups NF or 1% milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Pinch cinnamon and cayenne

Lasagna:

• 1 (15-ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese
• 2 light garlic+herb laughing cow wedges
• big handful of basil, chopped
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan + 1/2 cup Italian shredded cheese mix
• 1.5 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• herbs de provence, thyme, garlic powder, Mrs. Dash
• 12-15 uncooked lasagna noodles
• 2-3 cups marinara sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella

Directions

To make the sauce: Melt the butter in a pan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk. Whisk in the milk. Increase the heat to medium-high. Whisk the sauce until it comes to a simmer and is slightly thick and smooth (may take a bit longer with the lower fat milk).  Whisk the salt, pepper, cinnamon and cayenne into the béchamel sauce.  Keep warm.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Get out the goods.

Whisk the ricotta, basil, Parmesan/Italian cheese mix, laughing cow, prosciutto, pepper and spices to taste in a medium bowl to blend.

Boil the noodles until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Arrange the noodles in a single layer on a baking sheet to prevent them from sticking.

Pour the béchamel sauce over the bottom of a 13 x 9 dish.  Spread about 2 spoonfuls of ricotta mixture evenly over each noodle. Starting at 1 end, roll each noodle like a jelly roll. Lay the lasagna rolls seam side down, without touching, atop the béchamel sauce in the dish. Repeat with the remaining noodles and ricotta mixture.

Spoon 2-3 cups of marinara sauce over the lasagna rolls (more if you like it saucy).

I got this sauce from TJ’s and it was really nice and fresh tasting unlike most jarred sauces.  Cover tightly with foil.

Bake until heated through and the sauce bubbles, about 20-25 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese and bake until the cheese on top becomes golden, about 10-15 minutes longer. Let stand for 10 minutes (if you can stand it) and serve!

We had a salad on the side with romaine, cranberry goat cheese and walnuts, along with a glass of J. Lohr Merlot.

It is a nice red, slightly toasty with notes of dark cherry and plum.  It is pretty reasonably priced too.  We played the tasting game with a cute notepad I picked up at Anthro called ‘Rate that Wine’.  This would be great fun for parties too.

I had 1 1/2 rolls with the salad and a small glass of wine.  After dinner I grabbed a coconut water and we curled up on the couch to watch a movie, but fell asleep not even half way through!  Ah well, this usually always happens with us!

It was sure a nice night because Chris and I got to sit down and had a great time chatting over dinner again for longer than usual.  That’s another great thing about eating at home, you can sit at the table for as long as you want! 🙂