Chef notes
We came up with this recipe while brainstorming how to make a pasta dish for two, and landed on lasagna because it's the ultimate crowd-pleaser, the king of all baked pastas, the most impressive thing we could think of. We are not ashamed to admit that the idea for presenting it this way came from a photo of baked cinnamon buns in a pan, though we later learned that there is in fact a classic, pinwheel shaped pasta dish that exists in Italy, called rotolo.
We wanted to make this version taste like classic lasagna and pulled in all the flavors of a true lasagna Bolognese — fresh pasta, besciamella, Bolognese sauce — and added some Italian American twists of our own (i.e. mozzarella, tomato sauce, sweet Italian sausage). It's perfect for sharing, because each person gets a pinwheel, and the whole top is crispy, so every bite is perfect. The lasagna is lighter than most traditional lasagnas because we use robiola cheese instead of ricotta cheese. The pinwheels are easy to share, and they are fun to make.
Technique tip: Make sure all ingredients are chilled before rolling the lasagna. Swap option: Most of the labor-intensive components can be swapped for store-bought ones, i.e. the Bolognese can be swapped for a store-bought meat sauce, the tomato sauce can be swapped for store-bought sauce, and the pasta sheets can be purchased at a high-end grocery store. The besciamella can be skipped if there are time constraints.
Special equipment: A pasta sheeter and a food processor.
