Chicken Alfredo Lasagna — The White-Sauce Lasagna

Mama’s back went out Tuesday morning at the diner. She was lifting a tray of dirty dishes off the bus station, twisted slightly to set it on the cart, and felt something pull along her lower spine that dropped her to one knee. She got herself flat on the prep-room floor and stayed there for fifteen minutes before she could stand up enough to walk to a chair. The morning manager called her an Uber home and told her to see a doctor before she came back. The diner has no formal sick leave policy because the diner is a small family-run business that operates on the assumption that nobody on staff will ever be too injured to work. Mama was the first person in five years to be too injured to work.

Cody drove her to urgent care Wednesday afternoon between his morning class commute and his evening class. The diagnosis came back Wednesday evening: strained lumbar muscle, no disc damage, no nerve compression, three weeks of complete rest with no lifting over five pounds, ibuprofen on a four-hour rotation, a heating pad twice a day. The urgent-care doctor wrote her a note saying she could return to light duty in three weeks if the pain had resolved. The note didn’t change anything about the wages, because the diner doesn’t pay for time you’re not on the floor.

Three weeks no pay is a real hit on a household where the budget runs week-to-week and where my college money is in a green envelope under the silverware drawer instead of an actual savings account at a bank. Cody and I sat at the kitchen table Wednesday night after Mama had gone to bed early on the heating pad, and we went through the household budget on the back of a junk-mail envelope — rent, utilities, the truck insurance, groceries, Cody’s tuition (covered by Pell Grant but with incidentals), Mama’s phone, the internet. The three-week shortfall came to about thirteen hundred dollars including a buffer for unexpected.

I had eight hundred dollars in the COLLEGE pocket I’d been planning to use for graduation expenses — the cap and gown fee, the senior trip, dorm supplies for August. Cody had nine hundred and thirty dollars in his savings account, the unit-stipend money he’d been planning to put toward a used car this summer. Between us we had seventeen hundred and thirty dollars, more than enough to cover Mama’s three weeks. We agreed at the kitchen table Wednesday night to cover her wages quietly, without telling her, by simply continuing to pay all the bills and keeping the fridge stocked. She would notice nothing was missing. We knew if we told her she’d argue. Mama doesn’t accept money from her children. Her pride about that is a stone wall and we’ve both run into it before.

Sunday I made chicken alfredo lasagna because Mama needed comfort food that didn’t require her to do anything but eat — and because I’d been wanting to test a white-sauce lasagna ever since I saw one described in a Marcella Hazan paragraph at the library back in November. The white-sauce lasagna is the cousin of the red-sauce one most American home cooks know — same architecture, different flavor profile, less acidic, more delicate, easier on a stomach.

I poached two chicken breasts in seasoned water, cooled and shredded the meat, and tossed it with a pound of fresh spinach wilted in butter and garlic. The from-scratch alfredo sauce: a stick of butter melted in a large saucepan, a quart of heavy cream warmed slowly with four cloves of minced garlic and a pinch of nutmeg, then a full cup of finely grated parmesan whisked in off-heat in three additions until the sauce was smooth and glossy. Salt, pepper, a tiny grating of fresh nutmeg.

The lasagna assembles in nine layers in a deep nine-by-thirteen pan: a thin layer of alfredo on the bottom, three lasagna noodles, a third of the chicken-spinach mix, dollops of fresh ricotta, a sprinkling of mozzarella, a ladle of alfredo. Repeat twice. Top with three more noodles, the rest of the alfredo poured generously over, mozzarella, parmesan. Three-fifty for an hour with foil for the first forty-five minutes (so the noodles cook all the way through), then uncovered for the last fifteen so the cheese on top blisters and browns. Rest twenty minutes before cutting or the layers slide.

Mama ate a square the size of her hand at six PM and went straight back to the heating pad with her plate. She told Cody from the couch, “That’s the kind of food that makes you forget your back hurts.” The white sauce stayed elegant where red would have shouted. Cody and I cleaned the kitchen in silence. Mama doesn’t know about the envelope yet. She won’t.

Whisk the parmesan in off the heat in three additions — that’s the no-break alfredo. Here’s the nine-layer build.

Chicken Alfredo Lasagna

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 20 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 9 lasagna noodles
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1 jar (15 oz) Alfredo sauce
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 container (15 oz) ricotta cheese
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (optional, for garnish)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions; drain and lay flat on a lightly oiled baking sheet to prevent sticking.
2. Make the chicken filling. In a large bowl, stir together the shredded chicken, Alfredo sauce, drained diced tomatoes, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and black pepper until evenly combined.
3. Mix the ricotta layer. In a separate bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, beaten egg, 1 cup of the mozzarella, and 1/4 cup of the Parmesan. Stir until smooth.
4. Layer the lasagna. Spread a thin layer of the chicken Alfredo mixture across the bottom of a greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Lay 3 noodles over the top. Spread half the ricotta mixture over the noodles, then half the remaining chicken Alfredo mixture. Repeat layers: 3 noodles, remaining ricotta, remaining chicken Alfredo. Finish with the last 3 noodles.
5. Top and cover. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan evenly over the top. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
6. Bake covered. Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes.
7. Bake uncovered. Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes, until the cheese is golden and bubbling at the edges.
8. Rest and serve. Let the lasagna rest for 10 minutes before cutting. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired, and serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 430 | Protein: 31g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 720mg