Italian Dinner for 6

We were having a couple friends over for dinner and wanted to make a fancier than usual meal! We all agree that the best thing that Olive Garden serves is their chicken and gnocchi soup. I've made the soup before and thought it would be a great treat. Our friends were bringing over salad and dessert so we needed a main dish to go with that. Pasta it was! I had seen so many variations of lasagna and I decided to tackle the lasagna roll. Both the soup and the rolls are super easy to make but they do require time. Take a look at the recipe below and let me know what you think. :)

Chicken and gnocchi soup

Ingredients

• 1 TBS butter

• 1 TBS olive oil

• 1 cup of diced onion

• 1/2 cup of diced celery

• 1 cup of shredded carrots (I like to get the pre-shredded package from Trader Joe's).

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 TSP of thyme

• Salt and pepper

• 1/4 cup of flour (I used all purpose)

• 2 cups of chicken broth (I used low-sodium, add more if you want it more soupy)

• 4 cups of half and half

• 2 cups of cooked chicken (You can also buy this at Trader Joe's, can you tell i'm obsessed with them?)

• 1 packet of gnocchi

• 1 cup of frozen spinach

The Method

• Mix the butter, oil, onion, celery, garlic, thyme and carrot in a dutch oven until softened.

• Add the flour and mix in for 3 min.

• Slowly add in the chicken broth.

• Slowly add in the half and half.

• Add the chicken and bring to a simmer for around 20 min.

• Add in the gnocchi (I used 1 package from Trader Joe's and put it directly in the pot) and spinach.

• Keep heat on low heat until served.

Lasagna Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 TBS olive oil

• 1/2 cup of diced onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 package of ground turkey meat

• 1 TBS of Italian spice

• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce

• 1 can of tomato sauce

• 12 cooked curly lasagna sheets

• 1 regular container of ricotta

• 1/2 cup of frozen drained spinach leaves (make sure this is completely drained so you don't get a soupy mess!)

• 1/4 cup of cheddar cheese

• 1 egg

The Method

• Cook the turkey with olive oil, onions, garlic and Italian spice

• After the meat is fully cooked add in the spaghetti sauce and let simmer, then set aside

• In a bowl, mix the ricotta, cheddar, spinach and egg

• Spray a cooking sheet with non-stick spray and turn on the oven to 350.

• Lay out the lasagna sheets then start to layer with ricotta mixture and then meat, leaving a little meat sauce to top them (don't add too much filling or else it will fall out the sides.)

• Place them on the cooking sheet open side down and add the extra sauce on top and sprinkle with cheddar cheese

• Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 min, then remove the aluminum and bake for 15 min

Enjoy!

XOXO,

RuRu