Meatless Monday - Butternut Squash Lasagna

You’ve seen various takes on vegetarian lasagna.  It’s often really delicious with a nice red sauce and plenty of gooey cheeses. This version uses a traditional autumn squash as it’s variance. Plus it doesn’t have a tomato sauce so if you’re trying to avoid tomatoes for some reason this recipe will work for you, and you’ll have my deepest sympathies since I love tomatoes.

As with most lasagnas this one freezes and reheats nicely so it’ll make a quick meal a few days or weeks from now, that is if you have any leftover.

You can always prepare this a day ahead of time then just pop it in the oven or do like my mom did and make it ahead then freeze it until you’re ready to cook it. This was a brilliant idea because it made getting ready for guests just that much easier, the main course was already prepared. You might want to think about this dish for your holiday pot luck dinners. It looks beautiful in a hand crafted casserole.

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Ingredients:

Butternut Squash Filling:

2 cups butternut squash puree (about half of squash. See instructions below))
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup milk (or more, if needed)
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Spinach Filling:

1 cup cooked spinach (8 oz uncooked)
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
pepper, to taste

Other Ingredients:

10 oz lasagna noodles, cooked (for gluten free, try brown rice lasagna noodles)
1 and 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (or more)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (on top)
Oregano
Paprika
Basil

3-6 Cloves of garlic, minced and sautéed in olive oil

Instructions:


Butternut Squash Filling:
For this filling, you will need to have pre-cooked butternut squash puree. Using food processor, combine 2 cups of butternut squash puree with Ricotta cheese, milk, salt and nutmeg. Add more milk if needed (to make the butternut squash filling very creamy). Mix very well, taste and add more salt, if needed.

Spinach Filling:
Combine spinach, Ricotta cheese, mozzarella, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix, taste, and add more salt and pepper, if needed.

Cooking lasagna noodles:
Bring a very large pot of water to boil, and cook lasagna noodles according to package instructions. Rinse in cold water, drain. Using knife, trim noodles to fit your baking dish (if necessary). Alternatively you could try no cook lasagna noodles.

Lasagna assembly:
Prepare a baking dish. Grease the lasagna dish lightly with olive oil spray. Spread 1/3 of butternut squash filling on the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle lightly with mozzarella cheese and some of the garlic. Top with cooked lasagna noodles without overlapping
Spread half of spinach filling over the noodles. Top lightly with Mozzarella cheese. Top with cooked noodles.
Spread another layer (1/3) of butternut squash mixture, then sprinkle lightly with Mozzarella cheese and garlic. Top with cooked noodles.
Spread the remaining half of spinach filling over the noodles. Top lightly with Mozzarella cheese. Top with the final layer of cooked noodles.
Spread a generous amount of butternut squash filling (the remaining 1/3) over this final layer of noodles, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and remaining mozzarella cheese and garlic (about 1/2 cup of mozzarella). Generously sprinkle the cheese with oregano, paprika, basil.

Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 min at 375 degrees.
Remove foil and bake additional 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 Butternut Squash, medium size
 vegetable oil or oil spray

Instructions:

First, cook the squash to soften it. It is also easier to peel it once it’s cooked so cook it unpeeled, and peel it after it’s cooked and soft. Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit.

Cut the squash in 2 halves, scrape out the seeds and the fiber out of each half.
Lightly oil a backing sheet and place the squash on it cut side down.
Bake for about 30 minutes, remove it from the oven and let it cool. Flip the squash so that cut side faces up to expedite the cooling.
Once squash is cooled, peel it. The skin should come off very easily.
Cut the squash into chunks
Place butternut squash in food processor (or blender), working in batches, if necessary, and process it until very smooth and almost creamy.

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