I have to admit that Italian food is 9 times out of 10 going to be on my cheat day menu. I mean, can you blame me? buttery garlic bread, pastas with delicious sauces, cheese, more bread, more pasta mmm.
To me, it is some of the best comfort food in the whole world and though lasagna is one of my favorite Italian dishes, I don’t necessarily want to run to a restaurant to pick up some every time either. Also, lasagna is one of those dishes that’s not necessarily super hard to make, just a bit too time consuming for me always in a hurry to get my cheat day on. Sooo I thought it would be awesome to make easy mini lasagnas with, get this, phyllo dough which I just love. Oh my gosh y’all these are perfect! I honestly didn’t know they would turn out as well as they did. The super crispy, flaky shell with the perfect amount of cheesy, saucy, gooey-ness of the filling. These are soo good and soo easy, you must make these 🙂
So lets start with some Italian sausage I feel like this should be blurred out, a little graphic am I right? sorry mom haha…
Heat up your pan, and cut up the sausage into pieces stirring it around…
Once all of the sausage is warm and slightly brown add your marinara sauce…
Now for the phyllo dough, you will need to slather this stuff in butter so it doesn’t dry out…
Then with a very sharp knife, slice your dough into equal sized pieces…
See how pretty…
Gently place your dough into your muffin tins to form cups…
Place your ricotta cheese into the bottom…
Then your sausage/marinara mixture…
Then the mozzarella and all ready to go into the oven…
Baking…
Once I took them out of the oven I sprinkled a little dried thyme and basil on top of each lasagna which = perfection…
Yummy!!
- 2 Turkey Italian Sausage Links, Cooked.
- 1/2 Cup of Marinara Sauce (I Used Rao's Tomato Basil).
- 3/4 Cup (12 Tablespoons) of Ricotta Cheese.
- 3/4 Cup (12 Tablespoons) of Mozzarella Cheese.
- 1/2 Cup of Unsalted Butter, Melted (For Phyllo Dough).
- 16 Ounce Box of Phyllo Pastry Sheets (I used Athens Fillo Dough).
- Dried Basil and Thyme For Sprinkling (Optional).
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray 12 muffin tin cups and set aside.
- If using frozen phyllo dough, make sure to let it sit out at room temperature for at least an hour so it will be thawed and pliable.
- In a medium saucepan on low/medium heat, start to heat your sausage links leaving the casing on, and cut into desired sized pieces, my links were pre-cooked so I only needed to heat them.
- Once sausage is either cooked through (if you are not using pre-cooked) or heated to desired temperature, remove from heat and add your marinara sauce, stirring to thoroughly coat your sausage, set aside.
- Carefully roll out your phyllo dough, it is pretty fragile so take your time, then carefully divide the dough by taking off the top half of the stack of dough and setting aside, if you don't, you won't have enough for 12 tins and the dough will be too thick.
- Brush or pour the butter on both sections of your dough, making sure they are well saturated so they don't dry out.
- With a knife carefully cut your dough into equal sized square pieces, the size I cut made 8 for each half of dough.
- Place your dough into the tins making sure to form a cup.
- Place 1 tablespoon of ricotta cheese in the bottom of each cup.
- Then place 1-2 tablespoons of marinara/sausage on top of the ricotta, then place 1-2 tablespoons of mozzarella on top of the marinara, you may use more or less mozzarella depending on your preferences.
- Bake your cups for 12-15 minutes or until cheese has melted and the dough is golden and crispy.
- I sprinkled dried basil and thyme on top of the mozzarella right out of the oven, this is optional.
- Let cool a little before removing from tins, then enjoy!