Seafood Lasagna

Written by on in Dinner, Uncategorized

Every Christmas Eve, I host the Feast of the Seven Fishes. This year I experimented with a seafood lasagna. While my husband turned his nose up when I described the dish in planning the menu, he thoroughly enjoyed my unique take on “lasagna” once it came time to eating, and that’s all the matters. This is a great Christmas Eve dish because you can make it the night before, and then just bake it the hour before your guests arrive. It’s also a way for you to add all seven fishes into one dish (see note below).

Seafood Lasagna
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Seafood Lasagna

Recipe by The Cooking LawyerCourse: DinnerDifficulty: Easy
Servings

12

servings
Prep time

30

minutes
Cooking time

40

minutes
Total time

1

hour 

10

minutes

Ingredients

  • Pasta layer

  • Ready to bake lasagna noodles (I prefer Ronzoni)

  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

  • Seafood filling

  • 2 lbs crab stick – see note

  • 1 small onion, minced

  • 1 clove garlic, minced

  • 1/4 cup lemon juice (or juice from 2 freshly squeezed lemons)

  • 1/4 white cooking wine with lemon

  • 1 tsp Italian seasoning

  • Seafood béchamel sauce

  • 4 TBS unsalted butter

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

  • 3 cups milk

  • 1 can seasoned white clam sauce (or 8 oz. clam juice)

  • 1.5 tsp salt

  • Dash of crushed red pepper

  • black pepper

  • Cheese mixture

  • 3 cups ricotta cheese

  • 2 eggs

  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

  • salt and pepper

Directions

  • Day before instructions
  • Measure out the milk for the béchamel sauce so that it can come to room temperature while you do the other two steps. This will help avoid a lumpy sauce.
  • Cheese mixture
  • Mix ricotta, eggs, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.
  • Put aside.
  • Seafood filling instructions
  • Chop crabstick (or whatever seafood you are using) into bite-sized pieces.
  • Mince onion.
  • Mince garlic.
  • In a large sauté pan, add minced onion. Cook over low heat until onion is translucent.
  • Add minced garlic. Cook for another minute.
  • Add chopped seafood, and cook over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes. (You don’t want to overcook the seafood as it will be baking, too).
  • Add wine, lemon juice, and Italian seasoning. Cook for another minutes.
  • Remove from heat and set aside.
  • Seafood Béchamel Sauce
  • In a large pot, melt butter over low heat.
  • Add flour. Whisk together so that the melted butter and flour form a paste. Cook flour mixture for about 2 minutes.
  • Turn heat to low. Add 1/4 of the milk. Carefully whisk the milk the entire time it is in the pot so that it does not scorch or burn.
  • Slowly add the rest of the milk to the pot, whisking the entire time.
  • Turn heat to medium. Keep whisking / stirring. Watch the heat and adjust down if necessary.
  • After about five minutes of continuous stirring, check to see if the sauce thickened. You will know it is done when you strike your finger on the back of the spoon, and the mixture stays separated.
  • Once thickened, add the clam sauce or clam juice, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Cook for another 1-2 minutes on low heat.
  • Assembling the lasagna
  • This step can be done either the day of or day before.
  • In a large 13×9 lasagna pan, add a ladle of seafood béchamel sauce.
  • Add a layer of ready to bake noodles. The noodles will expand as they bake so you do not need them to be perfectly adjoining – some extra space is fine.
  • Add a thin layer of cheese mixture spreading out to fully cover the layer.
  • Add a thin layer of seafood on top of the cheese.
  • Add a ladle of béchamel sauce on top of the seafood.
  • Repeat steps 3 through 6 twice (so you have 3 layers).
  • Add one last layer of noodles. Sprinkle the cup of mozzarella cheese on top of the noodles.
  • If not baking right away, cover and place in refrigerator.
  • Day of instructions
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until cheese bubbles and top layer begins to brown. Note, if the top is browning too quickly, cover with foil.
  • Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting to allow the cheese to set.

Notes

  • You can use many different types of seafood in this dish. You want to have about 2 pounds of seafood, but you can mix and match the type of seafood. You can have all 7 fishes from your feast come from this dish. Great combos include: scallops, shrimp, crab, lobster, mussels, flaky white fish (like tilapia), and clams. I used crab stick and clams due to shellfish allergies in my family. Crab stick and clam sauce are also very affordable, so you can feel like you are feasting while still saving money.
  • You can substitute fat-free milk and fat-free cheeses. I used the full-fat versions since it was Christmas Eve – might as well splurge on calories.

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