Meat lasagna: with or without spinach?
 

I cooked up a batch of meat lasagna this weekend, and when I asked Mr. Kipper what he thought of it, he said that it needed spinach. :confused: I replied that you don't add spinach to meat lasagna, just like you don't add meat to veggie lasagna.

So, FT dining connoisseurs, who is correct? Do you add spinach to meat lasagna or not? :D

I've never seen anything green besides basil and other herbs in meat lasagna.

I don't see it as a hard and fast rule, but I probably would not add spinach.

+1

Not sure there is any definition of lasagna anymore. It can be with or without pasta, with or without meat, with or without sauce, etc. When spinach is in season, I've made a lamb and spinach version of lasagna that I loved, but in general, I don't use spinach to make lasagna.

But there's no right or wrong with lasagna, it's whatever people like.

No spinach for me either in a meat lasagna but a veggie, for sure!!

I add spinach to my meat lasanga. Not sure it adds any flavor, but I like the look of the green. I mix the browned meat, the ricotta and the spinach together, seasoned with pepper, nutmeg and parmesan.

Spinach is icky and ruins lasagna.

+1.

More meat, no spinach for me.

We made our meat lasagna with spinach for over 20 years, mostly because we love spinach and it is a healthy ingredient. Starting about 7 years ago we changed our recipe. We eliminated the spinach and increased the cottage cheese (we've always preferred that to ricotta) We both agree it's better this way, even though we often have some sauteed spinach on the side. We still use an obscene amount of part-skim mozzarella. :)

Without!

I'm ambivalent, but a little story. When I was in college, living in the dorm, I worked behind the front desk, doing the residents' mail. The front desk supervisor invited all the employees to her home for lasagne (meat) dinner. It was incredibly delicious. During the meal, she happened to mention that there was spinach in it. One of the guys who had been raving about how delicious it was refused to eat another bite (because he didn't like spinach). We made fun of him for years. :D

I found out why he thinks there should be spinach in meat lasagna... His mother always made it that way. :eek:

I'm guessing I can't win this, so perhaps the solution will be to make half of the meat lasagna without spinach (my half) and half with spinach (his half).

Vegetable lasagna -- and anything approaching it, like spinach in lasagna -- just doesn't taste nor look right. That's why a Seinfeld episode turned it into a derogatory term.

It just depends on your personal viewpoint of that food: does it need to be pure, or can you play with it. For me I hate people screwing around with my Caesar salad, it should be by the book. Lasagne on the other hand I have no problems .......iseing so bring on the spinach.

Place me in the "no spinach" camp. Meat, cheese, basil, garlic, cinnamon. Plus a good sauce!

Any spinach is just going to take up space that could otherwise be used for meat (or cheese).

Well, that may be the first argument ever used against spinach because of a space limitation. :D

I would say hold the lasagna and the spinach.

Then grill the meat.

I remember jfe used to have a signature saying "I didn't climb my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables"

You're thinking of telling your husband he's 'incorrect' because people in FT say so? :D

Unless you're a native Italian cook who has learned from generations of lasagna makers before you, add some spinach next time.

And if you are that native Italian cook I mention above, add some spinach next time. :p

It's the little things that can make a husband happy. Then he'll do some nice things for you! ;)

And we know how much space that spinich can take up, especially when cooked.

No spinach.

this might or might not work depending how clued in he is on food - just tell him you put some in. I'm not sure adding spinach would be noticeable tastewise.

Or alternatively, suggest that if he wants to control what goes into the food, then he makes it himself... you don't put spinach in your lasagne recipe, but you'd be very happy to taste his take on the same dish ;)

Actually, I told him he was wrong because one of my coworkers who is Italian said he's wrong. :)

He does nice things for me without me having to do things like include spinach in meat lasagna.
LOL, he insists it would give it a different taste (contrasting flavors or some such is what he said).

Suggesting that he cook lasagna with spinach if he wants it would only be opening myself up to food poisoning, or some sort of disaster in the kitchen. :D

I do think the solution here, since I'm not going to win when he grew up with spinach in meat lasagna, is to make half with spinach and half without. :)

Any space that spinach takes up is space that would be better served by being empty.

The spinach should stand alone, not the cheese.

Great...then why not do a nice thing for him and make it with spinach if that's what he prefers?

Ahhhh and that's the winner especially if YOU don't like spinach. ^

My preferences:

Meat Lasagna = lots of Italian (Flat Leaf) Parsley, herbs, Choice of meat, cheese, and tomato based sauce.

Vegetable Lasagna = Spinach, Broccoli, GARLIC, Carrots, cheese, fewer herbs, but add nutmeg for richness, and a cream based sauce.

Because I'm not his mother. If he wants meat lasagna with spinach, he can visit her. :)

Honestly, I don't care for cooked spinach. Raw spinach, I love. Cooked, not so much. So, to some extent, I don't care to contaminate my perfectly good meat lasagna with something I don't like. :)

Doing something nice for your husband like cooking something he requested is like being his mother? Wow. I guess my husband is like his mother given your definition and I'm like his mother too given your definition. ;) I cook things for him that he likes and does the same for me. I think that's part of being a good spouse—doing things for each other. :)

That's the crux of it right there.

The beauty of lasanga is that it is easy to make half of it without a particular ingredient. ;)

LOL, not quite. If he wants something that I cook made a different way, he's free to suggest it to me. If I don't want to make it like that, then he's free to make it himself, or, in this case, since his mother makes it like that, he can simply go visit her if he wants it that way.

We do plenty of things for each other--enough that he can deal without spinach in meat lasagna.

I hardly think that's grounds for problems in a marriage. After all, if a lack of spinach in meat lasagna is his biggest problem, I'd say he has it pretty good.
LOL, true, although it probably causes it to be a bit uneven.

I'm going to jump on the without bandwagon on this one. Of course, just thinking about meat/lasagna/spinach has made me hungry. No fair! :p

I have done it both ways. I prefer to add spinach to increase vitamin content, but traditionally, the meat lasagna's I have made don't call for spinach.

Lasagna cannot be beautiful if it has spinach in it. You people just don't get it. :D

OK Maybe this can help you . In my restaurant meat lasagna is just that no spinach and it has been made that way for 30 years.
The veggie Lasagna has spinach.

Now my mother has made lasagna for 60 years and her mother for the same from Bologna. That recipe during the holidays is used with spinach pasta sheets made by hand and is a meat lasagna. I am no big fan of spinach but the spinach pasta noodles give the lasagna a very different taste.

I gave in and made meat lasagna with spinach today. Not a huge fan, but Mr. Kipper thinks it's better.

Sometimes other values are more important ;) We forgive you. :D

Preach it.

I kept waiting for someone to come rushing into the kitchen and throw the spinach in the garbage can, saying, "You can't use spinach in meat lasagna!!! :)

How about the next time I'm going to make lasagna, I post it here first, and one of you comes rushing in to save me from the spinach? :D

I like spinach in my meat lasagna... but sometimes I do half and half :)