Tri Color Lasagna alla Caprese

What would you make if you were given a challenge with the ingredients red, green and white? Well, for me, it’s obvious. It has to be Italian. And, as cliche as it might sound, I could not get a caprese salad off of my mind. Juicy tomatoes, fresh buffalo, mozzarella, basil leaves and olive oil is one of our favorite things to eat. We grow our own tomatoes and basil and we can hardly wait for this season’s harvest.

Caprese and pasta aren’t normally put together, but the idea of colored, flavored pasta sounded fun and flavorful, and, it’s clearly something I like to do.

For this challenge, I needed to make sure I could get a vibrant colored pasta in shades of green and red for an unusual lasagna made caprese style, using basil and fresh mozzarella cheese.

I have never made spinach pasta or sun-dried tomato pasta before. I was looking for color and flavor, and just started guessing. The thing I did right is mix the ingredients with the flour FIRST, before adding the eggs, making sure the ingredients are fully incorporated and kept tasting. I taste everything as I go, but I don’t want to taste anything with raw eggs, so I usually put all my ingredients together and taste before any egg is added.

Variations on the Capresse Lasagna

Use store bought lasagna noodles and continue with recipe.

Layer pesto and chopped sun dried tomatoes with regular lasagna noodles for an easier way to achieve similar results.

This dish is really simple, once the pasta is made. It’s a lasagna with no ricotta cheese, so it tastes much lighter and can easily be used as a first course, or a side dish. The sun dried tomatoes bring a pizza flavor and the spinach pasta was very flavorful. They complimented each other. However, you could make this same dish with store bought lasagna noodles.

This was my 46th post here at Spinach Tiger. That’s 850 posts ago, and my I’ve come a long way, but it makes me realize I must start cooking more Italian food.

I so appreciate you being here, cooking along with me. If you make anything, please take a picture, and tag #spinachtiger on my Instagram account. That is the highest form of flattery.

Print Recipe

3 from 1 vote

Tri Color Pasta for Lasagna Caprese

A twist on caprese, homemade pasta, each a different color with tomatoes and mozzarella. This recipe will show you how to make red and green pasta sheets.

Prep Time1 hour hr

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Entree

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: 8

Author: Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Basic White Pasta

• 1 cup flour can use all purpose or semolina
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs

Green Spinach Pasta

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup fresh chopped spinach leaves finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs

Red Sun Dried Tomato Pasta

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 eggs

Caprese Lasagna

• Homemade pasta squares or rectangles
• 4 cups grated buffalo mozzarella
• 4 large tomatoes cut into medium slices
• 1/2 cup parmigiana reggiano
• 2 cups fresh basi leaves
• salt pepper for seasoning

Caprese Lasagna

• Homemade pasta squares or rectangles
• 4 cups grated Buffalo Mozzarella
• 4 Large Tomatoes cut into medium slices
• 1/2 cup Parmigiana Reggiano
• 2 cups fresh basil fresh basil Leaves
• Salt Pepper for seasoning

Instructions

• Basic pasta recipe found here.

Green Spinach pasta

• Follow instructions in basic recipe linked above. However. Mix spinach with flour first before mixing in egg.

Red Sun Dried Tomato Pasta

• Follow instructions for basic recipe linked above. However, mix very finely chopped sun dried tomatoes with flour before adding eggs.
• Let all pasta doughs rest, wrapped in plastic for at least 30 minutes.
• Roll out each pasta. You can take through a machine or roll out very thinly with rolling pin.
• Cut into shapes that will fit your pan. Pre-boil in heavily salted water for just a few minutes and drain.
• Preheat oven to 350.
• Layer pasta with tomatoes, basil, cheese and bake until cheese is melted through.

Notes

You can also use a fresh pesto instead of basil leaves.

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Manicotti

How to Make Homemade Pasta and Pasta Machines

Homemade Papparadelle with Proscuitto Meatballs