Inside-Out Lasagna

Isn’t that an intriguing name? I love it! How creative.

The picture EatingWell provided was equally tantalizing, which is why this ended up on our menu for Thursday, February 4. It’s fusili pasta (that’s spirals), mushrooms, tomatoes, and spinach. The best part? Big spoonfuls of ricotta cheese on top!

The pasta was boiling merrily away. I was slicing mushrooms. I have this fascination with slicing mushrooms. Every recipe we’ve made that used mushrooms – and there have been quite a few! – I’ve sliced the ’shrooms. One of the things I both love to do and get irritated doing is cleaning the mushrooms prior to slicing them. I’ve read in many places that you’re not supposed to rinse them or soak them or anything, because mushrooms of any variety are easily waterlogged. It makes a whole lot of sense, especially if you’ve held one in your hand. They feel…weird. Like spongy or something. So, since they do tend to grow pretty close to the ground, you’re supposed to brush off the clinging dirt with a dry paper towel. I won’t gross you out by telling you how dirty the paper towel is by the time I’m done with the carton…anyway, some of the dirt has issues coming off, and it takes a little extra rubbing. And then, mushrooms being what they are, the whole cap of the mushroom starts to peel away, and it’s…well, it’s just plain frustrating sometimes.

But I digress. I was slicing mushrooms as Christine plated salads. There was a little scuffle over the salads, because, if you’ll remember, we had salad for dinner the night before. So who wants ANOTHER salad? Not I. But probably my mom would want one…Christine might want one…and our dad would probably be grateful for one. Plus, my dad went and got this half wheel of bleu cheese at Costco. HALF WHEEL. *Please*. Don’t try to picture eating the whole thing. You might get physically ill. The point of that bit of information being that Christine made him a beautiful salad, utilizing only romaine, dried cranberries, and bleu cheese. (We didn’t have anything else on hand, having used it all in our salad the previous night.)

When I finally finished the mushrooms, we started sauteing them in a little oil. They turned their normal grayish-brown and started smelling like they… normally do, and then we added the tomatoes. I don’t know how you feel about canned tomatoes, but I’m not a huge fan. They have a funny smell. Especially if you’ve “grown up” on fresh. But we dumped them in, juice and all, and stirred that around for a while. The spinach was next. Christine started putting in huge handfuls of fresh spinach, piling it high. I was trying not to look as horrified as I felt. There was so much green going on there – and I couldn’t stir it anymore, because the spinach would fall out!

But all in good time, it wilted, like it’s supposed to. The pasta finished, and we stirred everything together in a big bowl. A little oregano, a little thyme, and plenty of parmesan, salt, and pepper. We served it just like that, and everyone got to put as much ricotta cheese as they wanted on their personal serving.

On a scale from 1 to 10: 8.

If at all possible, I’d find a fresher alternative to the canned tomatoes. The pasta was also just a tad on the chewy side – let it go for a little bit longer. Other than that? Perfetto! Let’s do it again!

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