What Dessert to Serve With Lasagna? 21 Ideas
Lasagna is one of the most iconic Italian dishes that please all meat lovers. Soft, full of red sauce and fresh minced meat, this plate is a complete meal that contains all types of macronutrients. But, what dessert to serve with lasagna?
You can serve all kinds of desserts with lasagna – from fruit ones, like stewed pears and fruit salad, to cake and cookies, or even some ice cream. Depending on the kind of menu you want to have, there are a dozen recipe ideas like classic Italian sorbet or tiramisu or French technique of poached pear.
It does not matter how you choose to build your diet; there will surely be a suitable option you can use and enjoy both lasagna and the dessert. I have listed 21 ideas that include a little bit of everything from vegan ideas, cold and hot recipes, and sweet but also tangy recipes.
What Dessert Goes With Lasagna?
I would propose having a light dessert as lasagna is a heavy recipe that contains carbohydrates, meat, and sauce. In this case, you may want to choose a more simple dessert and easily digested dessert. Let’s see some ideas.
Sorbet
Let’s stay inside the Italian gastronomy. Sorbet is a fantastic small dessert that has 105 kcal per 100 gram. Of course, the small quantity of calories is not what makes it perfect, but the taste makes a difference. [1]
Sorbet is very fresh, feels light, and is also used to rinse the palate between two different courses. For example, if you are serving lasagna and after serving fish, a mango or lemon sorbet improves the tasting process between those two courses.
The acidity and ice content in sorbet leave a freshness in your mouth that is needed after a heavy meal.
Poached Pears
This recipe is a French invention, but what if you prepare it with good Italian wine? Choose some local fresh pears and a sweet wine suitable for consuming fruits. You can find plenty of recipes that will show you pictures of how to clean the pears and the process, step by step.
After consuming Lasagna, this easy dessert will leave a bittersweet taste in your mouth and will be very light. Also, Lasagna is a meat-based recipe and goes well with red wine, and an end like this goes just perfectly.
Vanilla Ice Cream
A good substitute for sorbet is vanilla ice cream. Not very sweet, the natural taste of vanilla feels perfect to finish a meal with lasagna. Just a tiny scoop, served with some cookie crumbs.
You can find endless good and high-quality options in supermarkets, but the best part of this serving would be if you prepare it by yourself at home. Just four ingredients: whipped cream, whole milk, vanilla, and sugar, and one good hand mixer are all you need.
You can add small elements like some strawberries or baked almonds to add some extra flavor, and Voila, amazing homemade ice cream.
Fruit Salad
After eating one good (or maybe 2) portion of lasagna, practically, you have taken the needed quantity of carbs, protein, and fat. What you need is some natural sugar. The best way to take it is through a fresh fruit salad.
Choose what fruits you like. Here no boundaries exist; you choose what your heart wants. Chop them aesthetically in medium pieces, not very big and not very small.
Prepare a dressing made of orange juice, lemon juice, and a little honey, and put this in your fresh fruit bowl to make it better. According to each person’s appetite, they can take how much they want to eat.
Stewed Pears
If there exists any chance that you don’t want to include alcohol in your menu, you can go for stewed pears, which is practically the same recipe, but instead of wine, you use water.
It is slightly different in taste, as it does not have the bitterness or acidity of the wine, but it will be sweeter and softer. A good option if you want another version of cooked pear for kids. In this case, it will also have a little fewer calories.
Avocado Cake
Have you ever tried to incorporate avocado into a cake? It won’t be the sweetest cake you tried, but instead will be an exquisite and vegan dessert, suitable to be consumed with Lasagna.
The avocado cake is one of the healthiest recipes out there because it contains good fat that replaces the saturated fats that are not very preferable. Besides, that avocado cake is a little bitter and tangy, so the same as sorbet can help you clean the palette at the end of the meal.
Lemon Ricotta Cake
This cake is very simple to prepare and consume. It is similar to typical lemon cake, but the texture changes slightly as it becomes more dense and soft. This is due to beating the ricotta with butter and sugar for five or six minutes.
The good news is that you can use this cake as a base to layer cakes and fill it with citrus frosting or whatever type of cream you want. I suggest this recipe as it is not very common to taste cakes with ricotta cheese, which will make a difference.
Orange Polenta Cake
This orange cake is still in the Italian cuisine as it has a polenta presence. However, besides the bittersweet oranges, Orange Polenta Cake has a corny taste that may satisfy all polenta lovers who want to try something different on a cake.
Hot (Or Cold) Chocolate
Of course, Cappucino or coffee is the best way for everyone to finish a meal, but melted chocolate is never too much for chocolate lovers. It does not matter if you prefer it hot or cold; you can adjust it.
I love to put some cinnamon, cream, or marshmallows in hot chocolate, and in the cold chocolate, some pieces of brownie cake. In both cases, you can control the sugar content in case you want to have it in control.
Fruit Pizza
If you want to consume fruits but a little extra, then a fruit pizza is the best choice. First, you need a simple cookie crust baked, and after let getting cold, you can fill it with cream cheese and all the fruits you want.
Strawberry, kiwi, orange, and grape are just some fruits that will make this dessert very delicious and colorful. Just a piece of it will make everyone happy as it mixes the sugarless cream cheese and the juiciness of fresh fruits.
Pinolata
Have you ever heard of Pinolata? Pine nuts can make tasteful pestos but also cakes. Pinolata is a simple pine nuts cake with the essential ingredients plus a dozen pine nuts that will taste amazing after being baked.
To avoid the typical cake, you can try Pinolata and serve it with some jam on the top or a small quantity of peanut butter. Simple as that, this old Italian cake will add value to your meal.
Lemon Cookies Or Bars
Going back to lemon base desserts, I feel that an acidic and not very heavy dessert is needed after the lasagna. That can be lemon cookies or lemon bars. Either way, the ingredients and the process won’t be that hard to prepare. Again, those recipes can be prepared in advance and served cold.
Lemon cookies will be very light and easy to digest, and every person at your table can choose how many they want to consume without feeling forced to finish the portion.
Tiramisu
It may sound a little cliche, but I love to combine the lasagna with tiramisu. Tiramisu is a very heavy dessert in calories, as it contains at least 2 types of fat, whipped cream, and mascarpone cheese, but is a very soft texture.
After every meal, I would love to have a bite or two of tiramisu as it completely melts your mouth and perfectly balances the white cream and coffee taste.
Eclairs
One of the things that I would suggest avoiding is chocolate cakes as a heavy selection to consume after a rich recipe such as lasagna. Instead, if you love chocolate and want to have it on your table, go for chocolate eclairs.
The choux pastry is small and thin. You can fill it with chocolate cream and other creams like pistachio or coffee cream, or just a mix of those three flavors, so you have many options. And if you want to create the ultimate recipe to impress, you can go for strawberry and rose eclairs which are another level of patisserie.
Creme Caramel
Another good option to serve with lasagna is creme caramel, a very soft dessert that immediately melts in your mouth. The classic recipe of creme caramel can be adorable. Still, if you want something more special, there are many unique recipes like creme caramel with mango mojito syrup or another version with apple and cinnamon.
Everybody has tried creme caramel, but mango syrup or apple is not that common, so why not. Those recipes are really easy to prepare but also good to impress.
Banana Bread
It’s called banana bread but is more of a dessert, with a natural sweet taste and softness. Banana bread is a light-as-air recipe with a dominant banana flavor, but if you add almonds or hazelnuts, they will make the taste more complex and yummy.
You can serve banana bread cold to prepare in advance, even one day before, and because of banana content, it will stay equally fresh and soft. Of course, you can also prepare frosting for it, but I would not suggest it as it has everything it needs even without frosting.
Baked Apples
Instead of choosing desserts with heavy dough, you can go for something like baked apples. Apples and cinnamon are two ingredients that fit perfectly even if you serve them raw with a bit of peanut butter.
But if you want to have something more sophisticated, baking them with cinnamon and brown sugar is the right thing to do. It is not very high in calories, and it contains more carbs than fat.
Chia Pudding
A good idea is chia pudding. Extremely healthy with only two ingredients: chia seeds and coconut milk. This is a good combination, but if you want to make it more special, you can add more ingredients. A good example is acai and pecan chia pudding.
Stuffed Dates
Dates are good ingredients if you want to prepare amazing healthy desserts easily. Of course, the easiest way to prepare it is to fill it with peanut butter and toppings like chocolate chips or pomegranates. But you can find endless recipes of what to do with dates, and the results will fascinate you every time.
Goat Cheese Cheesecake
You can prepare an easy cheesecake where instead of cream cheese, you can use goat cheese and profit from its nutritional values and use any fruits you want, from strawberries to mango or any other fruits that you want to be dominant in your recipe.
Chocolate Souffle
Last but not least: chocolate souffle. I left it for the end as it is a heavy dessert but is one of those that I cannot say no to on any occasion. Full of chocolate, the soft heart of souffle, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream to balance the tastes are three elements that make this dessert divine.
Souffle is sweet, but you don’t feel it very much because the dough inside is thin and almost juicy. And as I already mentioned, the ice cream and maybe a small strawberry creates the perfect balance between components.
I don’t lose any chance to enjoy a souffle, even after a meat course or lasagna. A mixing of Italian and French cuisine can never go wrong.
