Italian Spinach and Gorgonzola Lasagne | Lasagne Rivisitate agli Spinaci e Gorgonzola
This is lasagne with the ragu taken out and a Lombard cheese put in its place. Spinach supplies the body meat usually gives, gorgonzola supplies the salt and the funk, and a lighter besciamella carries both without turning the tray into a cheese pudding. It is a genuine primo piatto, and richer than most people expect from something with no meat in it.
The balance is the whole problem. Gorgonzola is aggressive, salty and high in fat, and used without restraint it obliterates everything else on the fork. Here it goes into the besciamella rather than between the layers, diluted and softened by milk, with only a little crumbled on top. The spinach is squeezed almost dry and seasoned alone so it reads as a vegetable, not a wet green streak.
Fresh egg sheets matter more here than in a meat lasagne. There is no long cooked ragu to soften dry pasta, so the sheets have to be thin, tender and rolled the day they are used. Taken to the second thinnest setting and blanched briefly, they disappear into the filling and give the cut portion its structure.
Yield: 6 servings. Prep: 1 hour 15 minutes. Cook: 45 minutes. Rest: 20 minutes. Total: about 2 hours 20 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Region: Lombardy and eastern Piedmont.
The Story
Gorgonzola takes its name from a town just east of Milan, and the cheese has been made across the Lombard and Piedmontese plain since at least the medieval period, when herds coming down from the Alpine pastures in autumn were rested and milked there. It has carried DOP status since 1996 and the zone is tightly drawn across sixteen provinces of Lombardy and Piedmont.
There are two versions and the difference matters in cooking. Dolce is aged around fifty days, pale, soft enough to spread and comparatively mild. Piccante is aged eighty days or more, firmer, more heavily veined with Penicillium roqueforti and considerably sharper. This recipe uses dolce in the besciamella, where its softness lets it melt into milk without seizing, and a little piccante on the surface, where oven heat turns its sharpness into something toasted.
Lasagne itself is Emilian rather than Lombard, and its canonical form is lasagne verdi alla bolognese, where the spinach sits inside the pasta sheet and the filling is ragu. This dish is deliberately not that. It is a rivisitazione that moves the spinach out of the dough and into the layers, replaces the meat with a cheese from the next region over, and keeps only the Emilian technique: thin fresh sheets, restrained sauce, and enough layers to hold a cut square together.
Ingredients
For the egg pasta sheets
All purpose flour, 2 cups (250 g)
Fine semola rimacinata, 1/3 cup (50 g)
Whole eggs, large, 3
Egg yolk, 1
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp (5 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
For the spinach
Fresh spinach, stems removed, 2 lb (900 g)
Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Garlic clove, lightly crushed, 1
Fine sea salt, 3/4 tsp (4.5 g)
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1 pinch
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the gorgonzola besciamella
Whole milk, 4 cups (950 ml)
Unsalted butter, 5 tbsp (70 g)
All purpose flour, 1/2 cup (60 g)
Gorgonzola dolce, rind removed, 7 oz (200 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1 pinch
Bay leaf, 1
For assembly and finishing
Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, 1 cup (90 g)
Gorgonzola piccante, crumbled, 2 oz (55 g)
Toasted walnuts, roughly chopped, 1/3 cup (40 g)
Unsalted butter, for the dish, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Coarse sea salt, for the pasta water, 2 tbsp (36 g)
Preparation
Step 1
Make and rest the pasta dough. Mound the flour and semola on a board, make a well and break in the eggs and yolk with the olive oil and fine salt. Work the eggs outward with a fork until the mass comes together, then knead a full 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic and slightly tacky rather than sticky. Wrap it tightly and rest 30 minutes at room temperature. Dough rolled straight after kneading springs back and finishes thicker and tougher than intended.
Step 2
Cook and dry the spinach. Melt the butter in a wide pan with the crushed garlic, add the spinach in batches and cook over medium heat just until it collapses, about 3 minutes in total. Discard the garlic. Tip the spinach into a colander, press it hard with the back of a ladle, then wring it in a clean towel until it is genuinely dry. Two pounds of raw leaf reduce to a small dense ball, and every drop left leaks into the tray. Chop it roughly and season with the salt, nutmeg and pepper.
Step 3
Build the gorgonzola besciamella. Warm the milk with the bay leaf until steaming. Melt the 5 tablespoons of butter in a heavy saucepan, whisk in the flour and cook the roux over low heat for 2 minutes until it smells biscuity but has taken no colour. Pour in the hot milk in three additions, whisking hard each time until smooth, then simmer gently for 8 minutes until it coats a spoon. Take the pan off the heat, remove the bay leaf, add the gorgonzola dolce in pieces and stir until completely melted. Season with salt and nutmeg and taste: the cheese carries a great deal of salt already.
Step 4
Roll the sheets. Divide the dough into four pieces, keeping the rest covered, and take each down through the machine to the second thinnest setting, roughly 1 mm, flouring lightly between passes. The sheet should be thin enough to see the shape of your hand through it. Cut to the length of your dish, about 9 by 13 inches (23 by 33 cm), and lay the sheets on floured towels without overlapping.
Step 5
Blanch the sheets. Bring a wide pot of water to a rolling boil and add the 2 tablespoons of coarse salt. Salt it properly: this is the only chance the pasta itself has to be seasoned, and fresh sheets take salt in under a minute. Slide in two or three at a time, give them 45 seconds and no more, then lift them into cold water. They should be pliable and still firmly al dente, since they cook again in the oven. Lay them flat on damp towels, never stacked dry, or they fuse into a single block.
Step 6
Assemble the layers. Butter the dish and spread a thin film of besciamella on the base so the first sheet does not stick. Lay down pasta, then about a fifth of the remaining besciamella, a scattering of spinach, a handful of Parmigiano and a few walnuts. Repeat for five layers, keeping each one deliberately thin and pushing the sauce right into the corners. Finish with pasta, the last besciamella spread to the edges, the crumbled gorgonzola piccante, the remaining Parmigiano and the last walnuts. Do not overfill, or the square slumps the moment it is cut.
Step 7
Bake and rest. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Cover the dish loosely with foil raised clear of the surface and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 15 to 20 minutes until the top is blistered and deep gold at the edges and the sauce bubbles slowly around the sides. Rest it for a full 20 minutes before cutting. Straight from the oven the besciamella is fluid and the layers slide apart; twenty minutes lets it set enough to cut clean squares.
Plating
Cut with a thin sharp knife rather than a spatula, wiping the blade between cuts, and lift each square with a wide offset spatula slid right under the base layer. Serve on plates warmed to around 120°F (50°C). A cold plate chills the besciamella within a minute and the portion turns matte instead of glossy.
Set the square slightly off centre with the cut face turned toward the diner. The layers are the visual point of the dish and a portion laid flat hides them completely. If the first square breaks, keep it for the kitchen and cut the next: the second is always cleaner once the first has released the pressure in the tray.
Finish with chopped toasted walnuts, a grind of black pepper and three or four small raw spinach leaves dressed with a drop of oil. Do not add more cheese at the table: a final grating only flattens the gorgonzola.
Professional Technique
The controlling technique is putting the gorgonzola into the besciamella instead of between the layers. Blue cheese melted on its own breaks easily: the fat separates, the proteins tighten, and what comes out of the oven is an oily layer over a grainy one. Suspended in a starch thickened milk sauce it is protected, because the roux keeps the fat droplets dispersed.
Adding it off the heat is the second half of that rule. Gorgonzola stirred into a besciamella still over the flame curdles, because casein at simmering temperature contracts and squeezes fat out. Pull the pan, let residual heat do the melting, and stir gently rather than whisking. The sauce should finish smooth, pourable and faintly ivory, never speckled with separated flecks.
Blanching the sheets rather than laying them in raw is the third. Raw sheets draw liquid from the sauce to hydrate, which means building in extra besciamella, which means a wet unstable tray. Forty five seconds in heavily salted boiling water hydrates and seasons the pasta in advance, so the sauce quantity is set by taste rather than by what the pasta will absorb.
Texture and Moisture Control
Water is the enemy of this dish and it arrives from two directions. Spinach holds an enormous quantity of it, and a thin besciamella adds more. Squeeze the cooked spinach until you are slightly embarrassed by how little is left, and cook the sauce until it coats a spoon and holds a line drawn through it with a finger. A sauce that pours like cream will be water once the cheese and the vegetable release their own moisture in the oven.
Layer thickness controls everything else. Five thin layers give a square that holds its shape and eats in clean strata; three thick ones give a slumping wedge with a stodgy middle. Keep the sauce to a thin even film rather than a pool and resist more filling than the sheet can support. The pasta is only halfway cooked going in, so a tray that looks slightly under sauced is usually right.
The rest at the end is a texture step, not a courtesy. Between about 195°F (90°C) and 150°F (65°C) the starch in the besciamella reassociates and the sauce goes from fluid to sliceable. Twenty minutes uncovered on a rack gets it there while the top stays crisp. Cover it and steam softens the crust you spent the last fifteen minutes creating.
Professional Mise en Place
Every component can be finished ahead, which is what makes lasagne worth cooking for six. The only fixed sequence is roll, blanch, assemble.
Equipment and tools
Pasta machine or a long rolling pin and a clean board
Baking dish about 9 by 13 inches (23 by 33 cm), ceramic or enamelled steel
Wide pot for blanching, spider, bowl of cold water, damp towels
Heavy saucepan and a balloon whisk for the besciamella
Clean cotton towel for squeezing the spinach and a thin carving knife
Prepared ahead
Pasta dough made and rested, up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated wrapped
Sheets rolled and blanched, up to 4 hours ahead, layered between damp towels
Spinach cooked, squeezed, chopped and seasoned, up to 1 day ahead
Besciamella made, up to 1 day ahead with film pressed onto the surface
Walnuts toasted and chopped, cheeses grated and crumbled, on the day
Service setup
Besciamella rewarmed to pourable over low heat, never boiled again
Assembled tray held refrigerated and brought to room temperature for 30 minutes
Oven fully up to 375°F (190°C) before the dish goes in
Plates warming to about 120°F (50°C)
Thin knife, wide spatula and a damp cloth at the pass for clean cutting
Chef Tips
Taste your gorgonzola before deciding on salt anywhere in the recipe. Two wheels of dolce differ enormously in salinity, and cheese, Parmigiano and pasta water all bring salt to the same tray. Season the besciamella last, after the cheese has melted in, and leave the spinach slightly under seasoned.
Toast the walnuts and chop them coarsely. They are there for a crack of texture against three soft components, and walnut dust disappears into the sauce. Watch them closely: walnut oils turn bitter within a minute of being perfectly toasted and there is no correcting it.
If you cannot make fresh sheets, buy fresh ones from a pasta shop rather than reaching for dried, which need far more liquid and a longer covered bake. If dried is the only option, increase the milk by about 3/4 cup (180 ml) and bake covered for 40 minutes before uncovering.
Build the tray a day ahead and refrigerate it unbaked. The layers settle, the sheets take up a little sauce overnight and the finished lasagne cuts noticeably cleaner. Take it out 30 minutes before baking and add 10 minutes to the covered stage.
Common Mistakes
Melting the gorgonzola over direct heat. The cheese splits, the fat pools and the sauce turns grainy. Take the besciamella off the flame before the cheese goes in and let residual heat do the work, stirring gently.
Leaving water in the spinach. Undersqueezed spinach releases its liquid in the oven, thins the besciamella and leaves the bottom layer swimming. Press it in a colander, then wring it in a towel until the ball feels dense and dry.
Too much sauce per layer. A generous pool in each layer looks right during assembly and collapses on the plate. Spread a thin even film to the corners and build five thin layers rather than three deep ones.
Cutting it straight from the oven. At that temperature the besciamella is still fluid and the layers slide apart into a heap. Rest the tray uncovered for a full 20 minutes so the starch sets and the squares hold.
Using gorgonzola piccante throughout. The sharp aged version dominates and turns the dish into a blue cheese bake with some spinach in it. Use dolce in the sauce for body and keep a little piccante for the surface only.
Wine Pairing
Barbera d'Asti DOCG: The classic Piedmontese answer to gorgonzola and the first bottle to reach for. Barbera has very high natural acidity and almost no tannin, exactly what a salty high fat cheese needs: the acid cuts through the besciamella while the absence of tannin means nothing clashes with the blue. Its dark cherry fruit has enough weight to stand up to a baked dish rather than vanish under it.
Collio Friulano DOC: The white choice, and better than it first sounds. Friulano from the Collio hills has real texture and a bitter almond note on the finish that runs alongside the toasted walnuts. Its acidity is firm without being sharp, and the faintly herbal edge meets the spinach directly. Serve it cool rather than cold, around 54°F (12°C), or the aromatics close down.
Alto Adige DOC Pinot Nero: For a red that stays light on its feet. Alpine Pinot Nero is pale, fragrant and low in tannin, with red cherry fruit and a savoury undertone that suits a dish built on dairy. The gentle structure lets the gorgonzola speak without a tannic argument, and a slight chill around 57°F (14°C) keeps the palate clean between forkfuls.
Valpolicella Ripasso DOC: The bottle for a cold evening and a generous helping. Refermented on the skins left from Amarone, Ripasso has riper fruit, a touch of glycerol sweetness and more body than straight Valpolicella, and that sweetness is what carries it against a salty blue cheese. Choose a restrained producer: an overblown example runs to raisin and buries the spinach.
Storage & Reheating
Baked lasagne keeps better than most primi. Cool it to room temperature within two hours, cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 3 days, whole in its dish or cut into portions in an airtight container. The flavour improves on day two as the gorgonzola distributes through the besciamella, and the layers cut far more cleanly cold than hot.
Reheat covered in a 325°F (165°C) oven, 20 to 25 minutes for single portions and around 40 for a whole tray, adding a tablespoon of milk per portion to replace what has evaporated. Uncover for the last 5 minutes to bring the top back. A microwave heats it through but turns the besciamella rubbery at the edges and softens the crust.
The tray freezes well baked or assembled raw. Wrap it in film then foil and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bake from cold, covered, adding roughly 15 minutes to the covered stage. Do not freeze it after reheating once, and never freeze the besciamella alone: it separates badly on thawing.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 6 servings:
Calories: 720 kcal
Total Fat: 41 g
Saturated Fat: 21 g
Trans Fat: 1 g
Unsaturated Fat: 18 g
Cholesterol: 195 mg
Sodium: 1150 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 55 g
Fiber: 5 g
Total Sugars: 9 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 31 g
Lactose: 6 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, vitamin K, folate, vitamin A, phosphorus, iron, magnesium
These figures are estimates. Sodium moves most, since gorgonzola and Parmigiano vary widely between producers, and the lactose figure is high for a baked pasta because of the milk in the besciamella.
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