It helps to have an herb garden that is exploding with goods, like fresh basil.
Oh yes! I love basil.
You can use ricotta cheese, which is more common, but if you want to really elevate your lasagna rolls, bring in the goat cheese. Goat cheese has much more flavor and a rich mouth feel. Once you take a bite, you'll never want to go back to ricotta. For the sauce, I've incorporated some sweet peppers. Most Italian sausage will have a bit of heat and spice, and that might be enough for you, but if you're looking for a bit more of a kick (which I normally do), introduce a jalapeno pepper to the mix, or something hotter like cayenne or even habanero pepper.
Don't be daunted by making lasagna rolls. I've included a number of photos below to show you how easy they can be, about as easy as making basic lasagna. Just a couple more steps, and they're easy to serve. And pretty!
Homemade Italian Sausage-Goat Cheese Lasagna Rolls
Ingredients
- 10 lasagna noodles
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 sweet Italian peppers, chopped
- 10 ounces spicy Italian sausage
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 12-ounce can whole tomatoes
- 1 6-ounce can tomato paste
- 10-12 basil leaves, chopped
- 16 ounces goat cheese
- 1 cup shredded Romano cheese
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- Olive oil as needed
Cooking Directions
- Heat a large pan to medium heat and add olive oil. Add onion and peppers and cook about 5 minutes, stirring.
- Add Italian sausage and cook through, about 5-6 minutes or so.
- Add chopped tomato and garlic and cook about a minute, stirring, until you can smell that wonderful garlic.
- Add canned tomatoes, tomato paste and fresh basil. Stir it all together.
- Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer.
- In a mixing bowl, add goat cheese, Romano cheese, egg and parsley. Mix well. Add a bit of pepper to season.
- Prepare your noodles per the packaging and when done, lay them out flat on a large surface.
- Spread the cheese mixture over them, then roll each of them up. Set them onto a large baking dish. I like to first place a bit of the sauce in the bottom of the pan.
- Top each with your Italian sausage-tomato sauce, then top with shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Bake at 350 about 20 minutes, or until cheese is nicely melted.
- Serve them up!
As I mentioned, making homemade lasagna rolls is pretty easy. First, you just need to get your sauce cooking, like this...
Mix up your stuffing. In this case, I have goat cheese, Romano cheese, herbs, and an egg to help bind it.
Spread your stuffing over the cooked lasagna noodles, then simply roll them up, like so.
Set into a baking dish with sauce, top with mozzarella cheese and they're ready to bake!
Enjoy!
