Recipe Background
Lasagna Cups deliver portable comfort with a flaky crust and cheesy layers.
The inspiration for these Lasagna Cups struck during a lunchbox swap back in grade school. My seatmate, Lila, opened her sesame-studded box to reveal neat stacks of bite-sized lasagnas her grandfather had packed that morning. The way the cheese bubbled over the edges just enough to make you forget the day’s spelling test was etched into my memory. Fast forward a few decades, I found myself recreating a more portable version, aiming to give that same compact delight but with a flaky crescent roll twist. I’ve always got a can of crescent dough lurking in my fridge, ready to be shaped into something unexpected. Layering those buttery triangles in muffin tins seemed like a modern nod to those boxes.
Lila’s secret, she'd once revealed, was the sprinkle of garlic in her meat sauce, a trick I’ve kept alive by mixing garlic powder into a skillet with ground turkey. Using the cheese blend gives a sharper kick than traditional mozzarella, and I like to add a smattering of grape tomatoes for brightness right before serving. Letting these little giants rest for a few minutes keeps each cup intact when lifted from the pan, a lesson learned after an ill-timed yank resulted in a collapsible mess once. Every time I whip these up, I’m back on that green bench, assuring fellow fifth graders we could finish our lunches before the bell rang, and without the fear of greasy fingers.
Ingredients
- 3 lasagna noodles
- 1/2 pound ground turkey or ground beef
- 1 cup meatless pasta sauce
- 1/3 cup 2% cottage cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 (8-ounce) tubes refrigerated crescent rolls
- 2 cups Italian cheese blend or cheddar cheese shredded, divided
- 1 cup grape tomatoes halved
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Lightly grease a 16-cup muffin pan.
- In a large pot of salted, boiling water, cook the lasagna noodles to al dente, according to the package directions.
- Drain the lasagna noodles, transfer them to a cutting board, and cut each noodle into 6 squares.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook and stir the ground turkey until it is browned and crumbly, about 5-7 minutes.
- Stir the pasta sauce, the cottage cheese, and the garlic powder into the ground turkey and boil, about 2 minutes.
- Unroll and separate the crescent roll dough into 16 triangles.
- Press the triangles into the bottom and up the sides of each of the prepared muffin cups.
- Layer 1 tablespoon of the shredded cheese, 1 of the lasagna noodle squares, and 1 rounded tablespoon of the sauce mixture onto the top the triangles. Discard the extra lasagna noodle pieces.
- Sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese on top of the lasagna cups.
- Bake the lasagna cups on the lower rack, uncovered, until the crust is golden-brown, about 15-20 minutes.
- Let the lasagna cups rest in the pan for 5 minutes.
- Top the lasagna cups with the grape tomatoes and serve.
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