Last week, I stumbled upon this really cool concept blog called Food ‘n Flix that invites bloggers to watch a movie, make a dish inspired by the movie, then blog about it. This month, the movie is Big Night (hosted by Spabettie) starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as two hilarious Italian brothers that own a restaurant together. In order to save the restaurant from bankruptcy, they risk everything they have on one extravagant dinner to impress a celebrity singer.
I loved the movie, it was cute and funny and well acted, and it made me SO HUNGRY. It inspired me to make a Tricolore Lasagna in the colors of the Italian flag (green, white, and red).
Normally I use no-boil lasagna noodles, but since this lasagna was going to have a bit of a thicker sauce and filling, I wasn’t sure they would work. I ended up buying fresh lasagna sheets to use instead (I only ended up using half of these).
The three colors in the lasagna come from the filling: shredded chicken, spinach, artichoke hearts, and sun-dried tomatoes.
I adapted this recipe from one I found on Pinterest and the sauce in the recipe was cream cheese based. Half of the sauce is mixed with the filling, and the other half is split between the bottom and the top of the lasagna layers. I think I would have preferred a traditional Bechamel instead, I will have to try that next time.
The lasagna is topped with Mozzarella cheese and baked until bubbling and golden. The result is creamy with a tang from the cream cheese, and sweetness from the sun-dried tomatoes.
Tricolore Lasagna
adapted from Tasty Tidbits
This lasagna is very decadent, to cut back on calories and fat – use reduced fat cream cheese, milk, and Mozzarella.
2 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts
1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, drained, chopped
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, excess water removed
1/2 cup drained, chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
1 pkg (8 oz) Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (KRAFT, TOUCH OF PHILADELPHIA recommended)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 pkg (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
12 lasagna noodles, cooked
Heat oven to 350°F. Combine chicken, artichokes, spinach, tomatoes, 1 cup mozzarella, and Parmesan. Beat cream cheese, milk and garlic powder with mixer until well blended; stir in basil. Mix half with the chicken mixture.
Spread half the remaining cream cheese mixture onto bottom of 13×9-inch baking dish; cover with 3 noodles and 1/3 of the chicken mixture. Repeat layers of noodles and chicken mixture twice. Top with remaining noodles, cream cheese mixture and mozzarella.
Bake 25 min or until heated through. Broil on high until golden and bubbling. Let stand 5 min before cutting to serve.
**EDIT**
I tried this again with a bechamel and pesto sauce instead of the cream cheese sauce and it was much better!
**EDIT**
Mmmm…this looks delicious! I’m pretty much a sucker for anything with artichoke hearts in it. So happy that you’ve joined in Food ‘n Flix this month! 🙂
Thanks! I’m super excited about it!
I loved this film so much! I love that you did a lasagna and I never knew you could buy fresh lasagna noodles. I know that our local food bank got a truck load of won ton wrappers donated and the chef there used those to make lots of lasagna to freeze. I wonder if those would work with this filling (which looks delicious btw!) ?
I’m sure it would! I’ve heard of using wonton wrappers in lasagna before – I would just check around to see if you should boil them first or not. I get my fresh pasta at Whole Foods, it is made locally.
So glad you joined in F’nF this month. Big Night is one of my favorite and I love to hear how people who have not seen it before enjoy it. Your tri-colore lasagna is perfect and looks positively mouthwatering. Great job!
Thanks so much!
Welcome to Food’n’Flix! It’s a great, fun project and your lasagna looks divine! Che squisito!