Pesto has long been a favorite Italian sauce. It’s full of rich flavor, vibrant color, and the silky aftertaste of high quality olive oil. It’s also one of the harder sauces to make at home since it requires a lot of basil and a portion of pine nuts- not the easiest nut to find in the grocery store. To make things simple for these pesto lasagna rolls we’re using pre-made pesto from the store. This key ingredient is not only mixed with ricotta and spinach for the filling, but it’s also mixed with a lovely cream sauce topping, too.

For this recipe we won’t be layering the noodles as is traditional for lasagna. But, we will be making a béchamel sauce- which is a key feature of traditional layered lasagnas. Modern tomato-based recipes often skip this step, but it adds a lot of creamy flavor to the mix.

To make the rolls you’ll need to prepare the noodles to al dente and then allow them to cool and dry on a cooling rack or a some sheet pans. Do this in a single layer so that they don’t stick together.

Then place a bit of the filling on the end of each noodle and roll them up, placing them seam-side down in the baking dish. At this stage add in some crushed red pepper flakes if you like.

Then cover with the sauce and some cheese and bake until golden brown on top. Doing it this way means that none of the noodles get scorched like so often happens with layered lasagna.

These pesto rolls are so savory, yet still feel fresh thanks to the spinach and pesto. This is an easy, yet impressive, dish that will have you wondering why pesto lasagna isn’t served at every Italian restaurant.