Recipe: Lasagna Roll-Ups

This recipe for Lasagna Roll-Ups is an old one. In fact, I didn’t have the directions written down because I made it so many times over the years. After my husband passed away that left just me and my nine year-old…. We like Lasagna…BUT …. even with freezing some … we were eating it for days…

Right about that time one of the magazines featured a Lasagna Roll-Up…. I thought what a fabulous idea… you can control how much you make and you still basically get all the ingredients … so I tried it and it became a regular meal.

I thought about it recently after seeing commercials for Olive Gardens Rollatini… new name… concept the same but instead of a red sauce they use cream sauces…

Ingredient Tips

I wrote this recipe for 3 meat (meatball, hot and sweet Italian Sausage)… but you could just pick one or the other…or even go meatless if you prefer… if you go meatless… you could peel and cut-up (in small pieces… zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms and peppers (just make sure you cook them in a little olive oil and garlic in a skillet until partially cooked......or even make it with cooked spinach (just press the spinach through a strainer to get out as much water as possible.

I will re-publish my tip about freezing cooked Italian sausage and extra meatballs… it’s a huge time saver with this recipe… but if you don’t have it in your freezer… there will be an alternative section in the directions where you can cook up some ground beef quickly.

For the sauce, you can use your favorite sauce or …. another time saving tip of mine… when I make sauce I always save a small amount to freeze for uses just like this.

Serving Suggestions

You can figure one Roll-up per person… they are extremely filling… but if you want to be on the safe side… you can figure on two per person and plan on having leftovers.

The quantities below made eight roll-ups.

Serve with a salad and garlic bread and you have a complete meal!







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Recipe: Lasagna Roll-Up

All you need:

8 lasagna noodles, cooked according to package instructions
1 egg, beaten
1 small container ricotta cheese
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried parlsey
1 cup cooked Italian sweet sausage, cooked and crumbled or chopped into fine pieces
1 cup cooked Italian hot sausage, cooked and crumbled or chopped into fine pieces
5 small Italian meatballs, mashed
3cups tomato sauce, divided
2 cups finely shredded Italian cheese blend

Alternative if you don’t have meatballs:

½ pound lean ground beef
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ of a onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon dry Italian Seasoning

All you need to do:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a 13x 9 baking dish with olive oil cooking spray. Set aside.

Cook the lasagna noodles, drain and lay on a cookie rack to dry a bit…. set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg.

Add the ricotta cheese, ½ cup parmesan cheese, garlic powder and parsley. Mix well… set aside.

In a large bowl add the meats and 1 ½ cups of tomato sauce. Mix well. Set aside.

Alternative method if you don’t have ready-made meatballs:

In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef until cooked, drain off any grease.

Add a quick sqirt of olive oil if the skillet is too dry...then add the onions, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Cook until the onions are translucent.

Add the meat to the “meat bowl” as directed above (add 1 ½ cups of tomato sauce) and continue with the directions.

Take a medium size cutting board and lay out one of the lasagna noodles.



Using a small spoon, spoon some of the cheese mixture (about 1/8 of the mixture) down the center of the noodle… do not spread to the ruffled edges, stop just before that.

Using a small spoon, spread the meat mixture over the cheese mixture.

Sprinkle some of the finely shredded Italian cheese blend cheese over the meat.

Starting with the short side, gently roll the lasagna noodle.

Place the roll in the prepared baking dish, seam side down.

Repeat for all 8 noodles.

Generously spread tomato sauce over all the noodle rolls… not heavily, but make sure they are covered so the exposed noodles don’t get hard.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Remove foil and sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese over each roll.

Bake for about 10 minutes uncovered or until the cheese has melted.