White Seafood Lasagna

in Freezer Friendly, Lasagna, Pasta, Seafood, Valentine’s Day

White Seafood Lasagna

If we had to be stranded on an island with only one cut of meat, I think we’d probably both take a medium-rare filet. But if you could promise me that they’re super fresh, we could make a really strong case to take King Crab instead.

We love, love, love king crab legs. Gently steamed for a few minutes in a foil pouch in the oven, the meat needs little else than just to be removed from the shell, if you ask me. That stuff is so good, clarified butter is most definitely optional.

White Seafood Lasagna

The most memorable meals can pop up in the most random of places, as long as the company is good. The night that the hurricane hit, my husband and I enjoyed a fantastic meal of grill-it-or-lose-it steaks with roasted red peppers and herbed goat cheese with our friends. No lights. No A/C. Plenty of wine. We were so roughin’ it.

Hands-down, our top vacation meal was a fantastic white lasagna at a loud, crowded, tourist-filled Italian place while on vacation in Breckenridge a few weeks ago. Not the place I’d peg for the freshest seafood on the planet but still… 3 layers of creamy, cheesy white sauce loaded with shrimp and scallops (and while the menu advertised crab, I never found it).

As we dissected each bite, my husband suggested how we’d make it at home (with king crab!). And make it better (with king crab!). We couldn’t find the crab in our dish that night but even if we did, I’m certain that it wouldn’t have lived up to my husband’s expectations (because it wasn’t king crab).

I served this White Lasagna with a big fat side of nothing. The lasagna was a meal all itself. Between the seafood, the pasta, and the cheeses, I’ll be completely honest – a salad would have just taken up valuable real estate in our stomachs. It was a balanced meal, though. There was spinach in it.

White Seafood Lasagna

A rich, decadent white lasagna loaded with scallops, shrimp, and crab.

Ingredients

  • 3 Alaskan King Crab legs (or 1 8-12 oz package of crab, picked over for shells)
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 3/4 lb large scallops
  • 3/4 lb shrimp, peeled, tails removed, and deveined
  • 6 Tbsp butter
  • 2 tsp chopped garlic
  • 6 Tbsp flour
  • 4 cups milk
  • 8 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated and divided
  • Salt
  • Freshly ground white pepper
  • 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water
  • 15 oz part-skim ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 8 oz grated Mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 lb lasagna noodles, cooked for 5 minutes and drained

Instructions

  1. Cook the seafood: Preheat the oven to 350. Form a large foil pouch around the king crab legs. Before sealing tightly, add 1/4 cup water. Heat 8-10 minutes in the oven. Remove from the oven, carefully open the pouch to vent the steam, and let cool a bit. Crack the shells and place the meat in a medium bowl. Lightly shred any extremely large pieces but donโ€™t over shred.
  2. Heat the butter in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Pat scallops dry with a paper towel. Place in the pan and cook 5-6 minutes, stirring a couple of times (because I had ginormous scallops, I first cut them into approx 1 inch cubes before cooking). Drain the scallops and place in the bowl with the crab meat.
  3. Rinse the shrimp. Poach in a pot of simmering water until cooked through. Strain and place in the bowl with the crab meat and scallops. Add a pinch of salt, some white pepper, and toss to mix.
  4. Make the white sauce: Melt butter in sauce pan over medium high heat and add garlic. Cook until very fragrant but donโ€™t let the garlic brown (about 3 minutes). Whisk in the flour and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the milk 1 cup at a time, whisking until smooth and lump-free after each addition. Cook an additional 4-6 minutes, stirring occasionally and taking care that the bottom does not scorch. Remove from heat and whisk in salt and pepper to taste and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese.
  5. Make the ricotta filling: Mix spinach, 1/2 cup parmesan, ricotta, egg, all of the mozzarella, salt, white pepper, and 1 cup white sauce in a bowl until thoroughly combined.
  6. Assemble and cook: Spread 1 cup of white sauce in the bottom of a 9ร—13 pan. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles in the pan and spread half of the ricotta-spinach mixture over the noodles, covering completely. Top with 1/2 cup white sauce.
  7. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles in the pan and add all of the crab-shrimp-scallops, spreading to distribute evenly. Sprinkle half of the remaining parmesan cheese over the seafood layer and top with 1/2 cup white sauce.
  8. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles in the pan and spread the remaining ricotta-spinach mixture over the noodles. Top with 1/2 cup white sauce.
  9. Add the remaining 3 lasagna noodles, remaining white sauce, and sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese over the top.
  10. Place in the oven and bake until bubbly and golden, about 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Notes

Yields: 12-15 servings

Adapted from The Food Network

Estimated time: 2 hours

34 comments… add one
  • I LOVE recreating meals that bring back memories of trips!!

  • This seafood lasagna sounds absolutely amazing!

  • Oh – that looks so good! I love making lasagna because there are left-overs for so long.

  • This looks wonderful! I love seafood and am always looking for fancy ways to serve it. Thanks for sharing this recipe, I’m going to save it and try it soon!

  • This looks super yummy.

  • What a stunning lasagna!

  • That looks wonderful, lobster would be great too.

  • That looks awesome!
    I love seafood lasagnas.

  • amy

    Found you through taste spotting….that looks AWESOME. Thanks for the recipe ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Oh my! Looks amazing! I’m stumbling this one!

  • This looks fab. We had an amazing seafood lasagna at a seafood buffet in Puerto Rico at the Ritz Carlton years ago. I can’t wait to try this recipe out and see how it compares! Thanks for reminding me of the delicious dish.

  • This sounds so yummy. I’ve never had a seafood lasagna. I’ll have to try it

  • Oh my goodness! This sounds so so good!

  • OMGoodness…THANK YOU!! I made this yesterday and it was amazing! I had a party to go to, so I assembled it before hand and called my husband to tell him when to put it in the oven. It was ready before I got home and he couldn’t wait to dig in, so I told him to go ahead. He called me back and said I should probably stop at McDonald’s because it was ruined and he wouldn’t want me to have to eat it. I caugt on to him immediately…he loved it so much he wanted it all to himself! Not really, but he did love it that much! It really was amazing…thank you so much for being so brilliant as to recreate a recipe and it be so perfect!

  • Jennifer – glad you guys liked it!

  • Lasagna recipe

    Looks and sounds fantastic. I’ve never tried seafood lasagna before, will have to make it soon.

  • I made this over the weekend and it was fantastic! We loved every bite ๐Ÿ™‚

  • this looks light and flavorful and BEAUTIFUL!

  • Fantastic!

    I made this last night for my friends and they all loved it! I even took some shortcuts on the seafood due to time (preecooked crab imitation, precleaned shrimp, etc.) and it was still fantastic! The seafood complimented each other wonderfully and the sauce tasted so rich, but was so easy to make. Thank you so much for sharing.

  • mmmmmm

    Made this tonight for my family! It was delicious and everyone loved it! It was sooooo rich though, it made my tummy hurt a little – but I have a very sensitive tummy anyway ๐Ÿ™ But if I make it again I will use a teeny bit less cheese and twice as much spinach!! ๐Ÿ™‚ Delicious!!!

  • Jenn

    This looks amazing, and we will be trying it this weekend. I don’t suppose you have any idea what the WW points on that great big gorgeous thing would be?

    Thank you!

    • Hey Jenn, I just figured it up. 9 points if your dish serves 12 (I think that’s how I usually cut a big pan of lasagna, 4×3 squares). That’s with whole milk, white lasagna noodles, and part skim ricotta/mozzarella. Not as bad as I was thinking!

  • rachel

    Great recipe. I added chopped chives to the spinach, lemon zest to the seafood, and exchanged about half the ricotta for sour cream and OMG (as my granddaughter says) !!! A romaine salad with dijon dressing along side and fruit tart for dessert. A truly great dinner.

    • Rachel, those changes sound great! And it makes me want to make it all over again ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Mandy

    Made this recipe for the 2nd time (for my mother’s birthday dinner), and made the changes suggested with adding zest of a whole lemon to the seafood mixture and adding chives to ricotta mixture. Such a great recipe! I served with with salad and roasted brussels sprouts.

  • Janet

    OH MY GOODNESS. My husband, who is not a seafood lover, absolutely flipped over this lasagna and is begging me to make it again. I have done so twice now, once with whole milk, whole ricotta, whole mozzarella, etc. and once with the reduced fat ingredients. It is delicious either way and you won’t miss the whole if you use reduced. I used for the first time the no boil lasagna noodles and it takes 4 noodles across for each layer. Came out perfectly both times. I also used an entire 16 oz. bag of spinach. Delicious. I thank you and my husband thanks you.

  • rosemary

    I had seafood lasagna in Barona, Itlay and have been looking for the recipe… I wil try it very soon, sounds wonderful.

  • Eva

    I had a party for my sister years ago in my home and one of the guests brought seafood lasagna. It was great and I asked her for the recipe. She said, “No”. I thought she was kidding at first! Shocked and disappointed, I made up my own seafood lasagna recipe once after that and I was not shocked, just disappointed. I didn’t have the right stuff, obviously to pull it off. I am SO looking forward to making this for my house guests when they come soon. Thank you so much for sharing unlike someone else…

  • From a no meat Friday, somewhat irreverent Catholic [during Lent no less] who doesn’t drink wine I want to thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for sharing this wonderful recipe. I consider myself a pretty good cook, but I couldn’t pin down just how to make this particular recipe and as my husband loves [Chesapeake Bay Blue] crab, scallops and shrimp almost as much as he loves me ::wink:: he devoured this.
    All the other recipes I found while researching contained either white wine and / or cream of mushroom soup [This I didn’t get. Really? $50 worth of seafood and you are going to mix in that? The only fish that needs to come in contact with canned cream of mushroom soup is canned tuna in a casserole and that’s only if you are missing your Mom’s cooking. hee]
    Really, thanks so much. I will have to come back and see what else you shared with your lucky readers. I am sure I am going to take my cooking up a notch if this is any indication of your greatness.
    Hope you have a great weekend. Take care and happy cooking!

  • Velma's daughter

    I made this and it was absolutely delicious. I don’t care for scallops so I used extra shrimp and crab to make up for.them.We ate the leftovers for brunch the next day. Yummy!

  • Paula

    To provide both sides of the coin, I thought I’d weigh in to say that this recipe didn’t work out for me. I’m an average cook, and recipes usually turn out ok for me. It took a pretty long time to make, I think in part because you cook each seafood separately – it took well over an hour to get everything into the casserole. I cooked the seafood a few hours after we bought it and it seemed pretty fresh, but the casserole was a bit dry and the flavor wasn’t there for me – it also wasn’t that cheesy. So its possible that I didn’t do something right, but just thought I’d give my experience for balance. It was fun to try something new, though.

  • J.Tee

    I am a huge fan of seafood! I live in S.W. Florida and work on a sandbar called Sanibel. I have a chefs demo coming up and really want to do a casserole or lasagna. After stumbling on ur recipe I thought I would give it a try on seafood nite at the store! I didnt want to spend the $$$ on king crab so I us ed snow crab. Oops!Everybody loved it anyways though!! Picking snow crab sucks! There is a huge movement on the Island for sustainable seafood… is all the seafood in this recipe sustainable? I could do the research but wondered if u already had?

  • Vanessa F.

    Served this last night for a small dinner party โ€ฆ it was a hit! It was just perfect, because I made and assembled it the day before, threw it in the fridge, and baked it off before my guests arrived. I used shrimp, bay scallops (the cheaper option, since they were mixed with other seafood), and imitation crab (8oz), since my local stores aren’t carrying king crab right now. I also sautรฉed the shrimp and bay scallops in a skillet instead of poaching the shrimp, and I rough-chopped the shrimp afterward to get a more even spread in my seafood layer.

    One thing to mention is that I cooked 1/2 pound of noodles, which I discovered during assembly left me with only 9 noodles — one layer short. I should’ve known better and should’ve read the recipe first and counted my noodles! Maybe it would help to note that we need 12?

    Regardless, thanks so much for making me look like a kitchen rock star ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Suzanne Smith

    Absolutely scrumptious! I did add one onion sauteed before garlic was added; also a can of artichoke hearts. Living in Lafayette, LA, of course I added Tobasco sauce & Tony Chachere’s to the white sauce. I made this for a dinner party & everyone enjoyed it. I’m excited about finding your website & look forward to your future recipes.

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