Three Little Ferns: Lasagna Pastry Pockets

I wish I could take all of the credit for this amazing dish, but alas, I can't. The inspiration for this comes from another one of the wives from Hubs' unit. I guess she had something similar at a hotel or something along those lines. She made it for dinner one night and this is my dumbed down simpler version. There is tons of room to get crazy and experiment with different ingredients.

These lasagna pastry pocket thingies take a bit of work to make, but they're totally worth it! Hubs raves about them! The first time he had one was on R&R in August and it was first thing I made when he got back. In fact, it's been less than three weeks that he's been back and we've had them twice. Totally delicious and lots of carbs!!

This is what you'll need to make 4 pockets. One is more than enough per person.

Ingredients:

2 Ready-to-bake pastry sheets, thawed
2 cups pasta sauce
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup chopped spinach, drained
8 lasagna sheets
12 slices mozzarella cheese
flour
water
salt to your liking

The first thing I do is get the pasta sauce on the stove to cook out any extra water and get it nice and thick. I use regular jarred stuff with an added mix of spices. You can also add a bit of meat if you'd like. Pre-heat your over to 350.

I use frozen spinach so I microwave it, drain it well, and then give it a chance to cool before mixing it with the ricotta. You can use more cheese/less spinach if spinach isn't your thing, or more spinach/less cheese if you want to grow up big and strong like Popeye.

Then roll out the pastry sheets on a floured surface. You don't really have to roll much, just enough to get the lines and creases out and spread the dough out a tiny bit. Cut each sheet into four squares. I do this one sheet at a time since they take up a bit of space and it takes time to put each pocket together.

Prepare your lasagna sheets in which ever way works best for you. I buy the no boil ones but boil them for a couple of minutes to be able to cut them in half. If you're using regular lasagna, you'll have to boil it according to the directions. The no-boil sheets that I buy cut in half to the perfect size. I'm not sure how regular lasagna works.

The fun part comes next! Layering! It's important part is to spread everything out and keep it as flat as possible. Start out with a piece of lasagna on the bottom. This will help keep the pastry from getting soggy and having a sturdy base helps with the movement and transportation. You'll want to use between one and two tablespoons of sauce and cheese each time.

My pockets are usually something like: pasta, sauce, slice of cheese, scoop of cheese, pasta, sauce, slice of cheese, scoop of cheese, pasta, sauce, slice of cheese, scoop of cheese, pasta (bottom to top). You could do more if you wanted to, but unless you roll the pastry sheet thinly, it might be difficult to get them closed.

When each pastry is to your liking, brush a good amount of water around the edge of the filling and top with a pastry square. I like to use the water to get both sheets to stick together, but then also like to roll the edges up so that each pocket looks almost like a giant ravioli.

Pop these onto a lightly sprayed baking sheet and toss them into the oven for about 30 minutes. You want the crust to be golden and flaky.

This picture does not do this meal justice. It has honestly become one of my absolute favorite things to make (along with mug brownies).

I'd love to hear any variations in ingredients or alternative methods that you use to make this.