Delia Smith Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne (Four Cheeses)

Even Delia’s husband, who says he does not like spinach, enjoys Delia Smith’s spinach and ricotta lasagne. It serves 4 to 6 people and takes about 1¾ hours, with an hour of that in the oven. Inside, spinach and cheese are layered with lasagne sheets and toasted pine nuts.

Both her How to Cook Book One and her Vegetarian Collection print this recipe, with the same amounts. “The combination of the four cheeses is its secret”, she says. It is always on her top-10 list when she cooks for people who don’t eat meat.

The white sauce goes together quickly, because everything is whisked in one pan. Then the spinach is wilted, squeezed very dry and mixed with the ricotta and the blue cheese.

Before you start, butter your dish well and grate all the cheese. For another meat-free bake, try her vegetarian cottage pie with goats’ cheese mash.

Delia Smith Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne with Pine Nuts

Recipe by Anne Morgan

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: DinnerCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Medium

Servings

4-6

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

15

minutes

Calories

840

kcal

Layers of spinach, ricotta, Gorgonzola and mozzarella with pasta sheets, toasted pine nuts and a Parmesan white sauce.

Ingredients

• For the sauce:

• 850ml (1½ pints) milk

• 50g (2oz) butter

• 50g (2oz) plain flour

• 1 bay leaf

• 60g (2½oz) Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano), freshly grated

• salt and freshly milled black pepper

• For the lasagne:

• 12 fresh lasagne sheets (about 250g/9oz)

• 600g (1lb 5oz) young leaf spinach

• 225g (8oz) ricotta

• 50g (2oz) pine nuts

• knob of butter

• ¼ whole nutmeg, grated

• 200g (7oz) Gorgonzola Piccante, crumbled

• 200g (7oz) mozzarella, coarsely grated

• salt and freshly milled black pepper

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Directions

• Oven: Heat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas mark 4. Butter an ovenproof dish about 23cm (9in) square and 6cm (2½in) deep.
• Sauce: Put the milk, butter, flour and bay leaf in a saucepan and season well. Whisk them over a medium heat all the time, until the sauce simmers and thickens.
• Finish the sauce: Turn the heat as low as it goes and cook the sauce gently for 5 minutes. Stir in 50g of the Parmesan, take out the bay leaf, and lay clingfilm on the surface so no skin forms.
• Spinach: Pull off the stalks and wash the leaves in 2 or 3 changes of cold water, then shake them dry. Melt the knob of butter in your largest saucepan, pile in the spinach and add a little salt.
• Wilt: Put a lid on and cook over a medium heat for about 2 minutes, turning the leaves halfway. They will collapse and become tender.
• Squeeze: Drain the spinach in a colander. When it is cool enough, squeeze out every last drop of liquid with your hands, then chop it finely.
• Filling: In a bowl, mix the spinach with the ricotta and about 150ml (5fl oz) of the sauce. Season well, add the nutmeg and mix thoroughly, then fold in the Gorgonzola.
• Pine nuts: Dry-fry the pine nuts in a small frying pan over a medium heat for about 1 minute. Toss them until they are toasted, but don’t let them burn.
• First layer: Spread a quarter of the sauce in the dish. Add a third of the spinach mixture and some pine nuts, then cover with lasagne sheets, tearing some in half to fit.
• More layers: Make a second layer the same way, but add a third of the mozzarella with the pine nuts. Repeat this layer once more, ending with lasagne sheets.
• Top: Spread over the rest of the sauce and scatter on the remaining Parmesan and mozzarella.
• Bake: Bake on the middle shelf for 50-60 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbling. Leave it to settle for about 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

• The sauce uses her all-in-one method: everything goes into the pan cold and you whisk as it heats.
• Use your largest saucepan for the spinach. 600g of leaves looks a lot, but it collapses in about 2 minutes.

FAQs

What are the four cheeses?

They are Parmesan, ricotta, Gorgonzola and mozzarella. The Parmesan goes into the white sauce, and the ricotta and Gorgonzola go into the spinach.

The mozzarella is grated and scattered between the layers. Whatever is left goes on top with the last of the Parmesan.

Can I use a different blue cheese?

Yes. The Gorgonzola Piccante comes from How to Cook, but her Vegetarian Collection is more relaxed.

There, she says Shropshire Blue or Cashel Blue will do instead. Use the same 200g, crumbled.

Is it suitable for vegetarians?

Yes, it has no meat, and it sits in her Vegetarian Collection. She also makes it whenever she cooks for friends who don’t eat meat.

One tip of our own: some hard cheeses, like Parmesan, are made with animal rennet. If that matters to you, check the labels.

Do I need to cook the lasagne sheets first?

No, her recipe has no boiling step at all. The 12 sheets in the ingredients go into the dish just as they come.

They sit between the layers of sauce and spinach, and then the whole lasagne bakes for 50 to 60 minutes. Her meat lasagne al forno uses no-cook sheets too.