Recipes Discovered

Butternut Squash Lasagna Recipe

I had planned on making lasagna the other night, but with a large butternut squash sitting on my counter, I decided to deviate from the traditional lasagna and try a recipe that I have been looking at for quite awhile. Instead of the traditional cheese filling and red sauce, this lasagna is filled with a mixture of roasted butternut squash, onions, garlic, and amaretti cookies and covered with a basil cream. Amaretti cookies are simply Italian almond macaroons, so any almond flavored cookie would work. If you can’t find amaretti cookies (I had a hard time), just omit them. They aren’t a dominate flavor, and I don’t think it would change the dish.
To make the filling, I roasted a butternut squash until it was very tender. Roasting the squash makes it really sweet and gives it a nice texture to mash up. I also sauteed onions and garlic to add some more flavor. I put the squash, onions, garlic, and crushed cookies in a large bowl and mashed it all together. I left the filling sort of chunky, but you can make it as smooth or chunky as you like. The filling could even be pureed in a blender for a really smooth texture. >> Once the filling was done, I started on the basil cream sauce. I melted butter in a saucepan and added an equal amount of flour. Once the flour cooked for a minute, I whisked in the milk. I used skim milk, which makes the sauce lighter, but I think it worked in the dish. To make the sauce richer, use whole milk. Once the milk thickened, I poured about half of it in the blender with a handful of basil leaves and pureed it. I only added half of the sauce because hot liquids expand in the blender, so you don’t want to fill the blender more than half full. Once the basil was pureed, I added it back to the plain sauce and stirred it together. For the noodles, I used whole wheat lasagna noodles. I really like the texture (they are a little chewier) and the flavor (a little nuttier). I only cooked the noodles until they were pliable since they also cook in the oven. Once the noodles were done, I began to assemble the lasagna. I poured a little sauce in the bottom of a dish that I sprayed with non stick cooking spray, and then added 3 lasagna noodles. I topped the noodles with half of the squash mixture, and sprinkled that first with half of the tomatoes and then a cup of mozzarella cheese. I drizzled some sauce over that, and then added another layer of noodles and repeated the layers. I poured the remaining sauce over the top layer of noodles, covered the dish, and baked the lasagna for 40 minutes. I then removed the foil, added the remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese, and baked the lasagna another 15 minutes, until the cheese was slightly brown. I allowed the lasagna to set for 15 minutes before serving it.

The first thing everyone will notice about the lasagna is that it’s green, which may turn people off. However, one taste of it, and they should realize how delicious it is, no matter how strange it looks. I really loved the lasagna. The basil sauce paired perfectly with the squash, and the tomatoes were a great complicate that added a little color. All together, it had a wonderful flavor. I will definitely be making this one again.

Butternut Squash Lasagna Recipe