"Lite" Spinach-Artichoke Turkey Lasagna

Ingredients

Turkey and Sauce

• 1 1/4 lb ground turkey, 93/7
• 24 oz Rao's Arrabbiata sauce

Spinach-Artichoke Cheese Base (via Alison Roman)

• 2 Tbsp olive oil, a heart-healthy fat
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 16 oz fresh spinach, chopped; or 10 oz frozen, thawed and squeezed bone-dry
• 1/2 tsp red-pepper flakes, optional; the arrabbiata is already mad
• 14 oz artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 12 oz cream cheese, cubed
• 6 oz fresh mozzarella, torn
• 6 oz sour cream, or Greek yogurt if you'd like to lie to yourself
• 1/3 cup Pecorino or Parmesan, grated

For the Top

• 8 oz low-moisture mozzarella, shredded
• 1/4 cup Parmesan, grated

Noodles and Seasoning

• 12 lasagna noodles, no-boil or regular
• Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Start with healthy intentions: turkey instead of beef. Heat a skillet over medium-high. Add the ground turkey with a pinch of salt and cook until no longer pink, 6 to 8 minutes. Turkey has the personality of a damp napkin, so brown it properly. This is its entire arc, character-wise. Let it have this.
2. Pour in the Rao's Arrabbiata and simmer 5 minutes until it tastes like it has opinions. Season and set aside. The sauce has no sugar added, which feels virtuous.
3. Vegetables enter the room, to build on our health-focused endeavors. Here is where we borrow from Alison Roman. In a pot, heat the garlic in the olive oil for 30 seconds. Add the spinach a handful at a time until wilted, season, add red-pepper flakes if you're brave, and cook until the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Look at you. Cooking vegetables. So healthy!
4. Stir in the artichokes to ensure your fiber intake is kept up, cook 2 minutes, then drop heat to low and add the cream cheese and fresh mozzarella. Stir until melted, about 3 minutes, then add the sour cream (or yogurt) and grated pecorino. This is the dip, exactly as Alison intended, right up until the part where we bury it in noodles. The spinach realizes what it has gotten into. There is no going back for any of us now.
5. Assemble the evidence. Heat oven to 375F. Smear a thin layer of the sauce in a 9x13 dish. Layer noodles, half the dip, a third of the remaining sauce. Repeat. Finish with noodles and the last of the sauce. You are building a delicious monument to a New Year's resolution you made nine days ago.
6. Cheese, the finale. Blanket the top with the shredded mozzarella and Parmesan.
7. Bake covered. Tent with foil so it doesn't weld to the cheese, and bake 25 minutes.
8. Bake uncovered. Pull the foil and bake 15 to 20 more minutes until golden and bubbling.
9. Rest 15 minutes, and make amends. Cut a portion small enough to keep statins off the table.

Notes

• Source and credit: the spinach-artichoke cheese base is adapted from Alison Roman's Spinach Artichoke Dip on NYT Cooking. She wrote a dignified appetizer. We turned it into structural support for a lasagna. The crimes against it are mine alone.
• It contains turkey, which is leaner than beef. This is true. It is also the only true thing on the health pamphlet. Ground turkey saves you roughly 100 calories per serving versus beef, a sacrifice the four separate cheeses absorb without blinking and then ask for seconds.
• It contains spinach and artichokes, which are vegetables. Vegetables that have been wilted in oil and then submerged in cream cheese, but vegetables. Their families have been notified.
• Greek yogurt instead of sour cream is a real swap and a noble one. It will not be enough. Nothing will be enough. Make peace with this now, ideally over a cube of cream cheese.
• Drain everything that can be drained (turkey fat, artichokes, spinach). The only thing between you and lasagna soup is your discipline. Use no-boil noodles for an easier life.
• Serves 8 people who asked no questions, or 6 people who are about to.