Lasagne Verdi

Lasagne verdi is the Emilia-Romagna classic that puts green spinach pasta front and center. You make the noodles from scratch by working cooked spinach directly into an egg and flour dough, which gives every sheet a deep green color and a subtle earthy flavor that store-bought noodles can’t match.

Squeezing the spinach bone-dry before chopping it to a paste is the most important step. Any excess moisture makes the dough slack and sticky, and you’ll end up adding too much flour to compensate, which produces tough, chewy noodles. The dough should feel smooth and slightly firm.

Each sheet gets a quick two-minute boil, then a cold water bath to stop the cooking. This parblanching keeps the pasta from turning to mush during its 20 minutes in the oven. Layering is simple: tomato sauce, cheese sauce, Parmesan, and repeat until the dish is full.

Chef Tips

• Roll the dough as thin as possible. Thick sheets won’t cook through properly and make the lasagna dense.
• Flour the dough generously while rolling. Spinach pasta is stickier than plain egg pasta.
• Don’t overcrowd the boiling water. Cook only a few sheets at a time so they don’t stick together.
• Let the baked lasagna rest 10 minutes before cutting. The layers set up and hold together better.

Variations

• Add a layer of bechamel with sauteed mushrooms between the cheese sauce layers.
• Use ricotta mixed with an egg instead of cheese sauce for a richer filling.
• Substitute Swiss chard or kale for spinach in the dough for a different flavor and color.