Having lasagna for dinner just got a whole lot easier! This make ahead ravioli lasagna with spinach uses a simple hack that will make all of your dreams come true. The secret? Use frozen ravioli! Mind BLOWN!
Lasagna is usually a super time-consuming meal to make and involves lots of steps, dirty bowls, and fancy layers. It can be worth it, but when I’m super tired…I’d rather make something quick and easy.
So, I’m introducing you to one of my easiest recipes of all time… make ahead ravioli lasagna with spinach and ricotta!
You guys, this is soooooo delicious. For reals. Even my picky kids loved it.
It has all the same flavors and textures as regular lasagna, just way easier to prepare. And by using frozen ravioli and just layering that with cheese, sauce and spinach, it easily cuts my dinner prep time in half.
Plus the addition of the spinach adds a delicious earthy flavor and makes you not feel quite so guilty when you have your second, or third (who am I to judge), helping. ahem.
Like traditional lasagna, this version freezes and reheats beautifully. I highly recommend making a few of these ravioli lasagnas and stocking up for the future when the craving hits.
I just know your family will LOVE this make ahead ravioli lasagna with spinach recipe as much as mine does!
Make Ahead Ravioli Lasagna with Spinach
Ingredients
- 1 pound Frozen Ravioli
- 24 ounces pasta sauce
- 8 ounce package of frozen chopped spinach
- 15 ounces Fat Free Ricotta
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 2 cups mozzarella shredded
Instructions
- Break up frozen spinach into a small bowl, mix in ricotta and garlic.
- Put a thin layer of red sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
- Lay down your first layer of raviolis. top with half the spinach mixture, then 1/3 of the red sauce, then 1/2 a cup of mozzarella. Repeat this layer again.
- Top with remaining ravioli, then red sauce, then mozzarella.
MAKE IT NOW
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes until all the pasta is cooked through.
MAKE IT A FREEZER MEAL
- Wrap it in plastic wrap, pressing down to remove air. Then cover with aluminum foil, label, and freeze.
- To bake from frozen, preheat oven to 375°F. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes until hot, bubbly and all the pasta is cooked through.
This was the first recipe of yours that I tried. We just had our 5th baby and we’ve been living off ridiculously priced oven ready meals from the grocery and take out. We’re all definitely ready for some home cooked meals again so I started furiously googling freezer meals and meal prepping until I found your page! I’ve only just started skimming and there’s easily 20+ recipes that I know will please our entire family (which is truly hard to do.) Anyway, I made one lasagna for dinner last night and one for the freezer. I agree with one of the comments above about the quantity of spinach but it’s easy enough to just adjust that to your family’s liking. I ended up using a little more than half an 8oz package for both dishes. Other than that small tweak, I followed your recipe to a T and it was a huge win (even the 3yo who lives off chicken nuggets cleaned his plate!) Thanks for inadvertently helping our family get back to some normalcy by sharing all your freezer tips, tricks and recipes!
PS: doubling the recipe and purchasing all the ingredients to make 2 cost me 16 bucks and some change. You can’t beat that!!!!
Can you use fresh ravioli instead of frozen? I assume it would change cooking time.
Yes you can, it would be the same, just start checking on it 5-10 minutes earlier to see if it gets done sooner. 🙂
I liked the flavor and it was easy to prepare. Forgot to leave a section without Ricotta for the husband who can not pallet it so he was scraping ricotta off his raviolis. Two college age kids were picking out the spinach. My daughter said, “Wouldn’t it just be easier to make raviolis?” I explained this was easier than lasagna but had to agree for my family next time their just getting raviolis.
Do you think you could use frozen tortellini instead?
Yes you sure can!
Can I use fresh ravioli instead, and then freeze?
I loved this for the ease of preparation, but I did not love how much spinach was in it (and I don’t mind eating spinach). Next time, I would either halve or quarter the amount…or use fresh… just not a big fan of how overwhelming the frozen spinach flavor is (neither were my kids), but they loved eating the “ufo’s” (that’s what they called the round ravioli I used)
This was a great recipe. I added ground beef in as a layer anywhere I put a layer of red sauce. I made one and cooked it right away and made another that I froze. 1 hour and 10 minutes to cook from frozen was definitely not long enough. It’s been in for 2 hours now and the center is still frozen. Not sure if it was supposed to thaw overnight in the fridge or what.
Hi! What do you mean by cover in plastic wrap and press down to remove air? Just lay the plastic wrap over it touching the food inside the foil pan?
Yep! Its just an extra step to help keep the air out of your food, preventing freezer burn.
Hey what type of pan did you use? Foil, glass or metal? Thanks! I want to try and meal plan and use this recipe!
I used a metal pan but you can use foil or metal if you want to go from freezer to oven.
We will see what they think. I put half the recipe in a pan for tonight and the other half in the freezer!!!
That’s really a nice recipe of lasagna. It’s something different! Thanks for this wonderful recipe.
Thank you!