Recipe

Brown Butter and Roasted Squash Lasagna

Brown Butter and Roasted Squash Lasagna

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by monkeymom

Brown Butter and Roasted Squash Lasagna

Photo 2 of 2
by monkeymom

  • This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Baked Pasta
    This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Butternut Squash
  • Chef

    monkeymom's Notes: Recipes that require inattention are perfect for the absent-minded cook (me). I tried a vegetarian lasagna recipe using two techniques that require just leaving something for a while to cook...

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Serves 10-12

  1. Peel and dice the squash into 1/2 in cubes. Toss with olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt.

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  2. Roast squash cubes at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes, opening the oven and tossing them about with a large spatula once or twice. This part is nice, because I can leave the veggies in the oven to get nicely colored and carmelized on the edges and corners with minimal attention. The roasting really concentrates the flavors and gives the squash a nice bite. Set this aside.

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  3. Separately, saute onions and mushrooms with about 2 Tbsp of olive oil, salt, and pepper until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms slightly browned. Set this aside too.

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  1. Melt and brown butter. This does takes a few minutes of attention to make sure it doesn't become overly burned. Remove from heat and let cool a couple of minutes.

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  2. Add 3 cloves of minced garlic and let stir to develop some garlicky aroma.

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  3. Put back onto a burner with medium heat. Add 4 Tbsp of flour and use a wire whisk to quickly move the mixture around to cook the flour for 5 minutes or so.

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  4. Add about 3 cups of milk very slowly with lots of whisking. Add a bay leaf.

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  5. Simmer for about 5-10 minutes until it thickens up. Add more milk or some chicken stock if it is getting too thick.

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  6. Add some salt, nutmeg, and pepper to taste. The bechamel is done. Be sure to remove that bay leaf. Set the bechamel aside.

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  7. Mix ricotta with about 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and about 1/2 cup of water to loosen it up. Don't skimp on the salt in this step otherwise the final product will feel bland. You can feel free to add some parsley, basil, or sage to this as well. Set aside.

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  8. Assembly into a 9x13in square pan.

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  9. Start with a few spoonfuls of Bechamel. Add about 1/4 cup of water to help soften no-boil noodles.

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  10. Add a layer of noodles.

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  11. Add half of mushroom mix and half of roasted butternut squash.

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  12. layer with 1/3 of bechamel.

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  13. layer with 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese.

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  14. Add another noodle layer

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  15. add ricotta mixture and rest of mushrooms and squash. Overly this with some bechamel and add another 1/4 cup of water for the no-boil noodles.

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  16. add another noodle layer

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  17. add rest of bechamel and mozzarella

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  18. sprinkle top with additional parmesan cheese and a generous sprinkling of pinenuts.

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  19. Covered tightly with some foil sprayed some canola oil or SPAM.

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  20. Into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

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  21. Take off the foil. If the noodles are still looking very dry add about 1/2 cup of water over the top.

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  22. Cook another 20 minutes or until top is golden and bubbly.

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Reply

Made this for Christmas dinner! Added some fresh thyme and sage and it was a huge hit!

Reply

why would you ruin a nice vegetarian recipe by coating the foil with spam?
tee hee!
this is baking right now--can't wait for tonight's meal!

Cheese_for_twitter0001 Reply

Brown butter bechamel -- now that is a fabulous concept. Oh the places you could go with that!

Title01 Reply

This sounds divine! I'm going to try it with kabocha (Japanese pumpkin). Yum.

Girl_dog Reply

Saturday morning, clean kitchen, and everyone asleep....what to do....make this rich, tasty lasagna of course! My husband decided the roasted squash was perfect for breakfast and I had to hide it until I could incorporate it into the dish. Did not have an onion handy so used several shallots instead - divine with the shitake mushrooms. We refrigerated the made-lasagna until dinner and invited friends at the last minute. Received rave reviews! Very rich, though, and a green leafy salad is a must as a side dish - in fact, probably should make the lasagna the side and have a huge plate of greens. I did not use the no-boil lasagna and added no additional water and it was perfect. Also, we didn't have enough mozzarella on hand so I mixed about half mozzarella and half grated sharp cheddar. Toasted the pine nuts before putting on top - delicious!

Monkeys Reply

How cool is that! I'm so glad to hear that you tried this and it turned out well. I also always find that bechamel based baked pastas (with all that cheese!) are rich...but satisfying. Thanks for posting on the outcome!

Dsc_0019_2 Reply

The browned butter in this sounds like a great flavor!

Maria_teresa_jorge_colour Reply

Brilliant recipe. Thanks for sharing it.

Girl_dog Reply

This sounds delicious and we will be having it for dinner tonight! I am curious as to why you chose to cube the squash instead of cutting it in half and roasting it (as that requires a lot less effort). Is it for texture? Perhaps we will have it twice this week - one made each way! The mushrooms sound heavenly with the squash too.

Monkeys Reply

Yes, indeed. Roasting the squash in cubes gives each a really nice caramelized texture and some bite. I think that roasting the whole squash makes for a much more mushy texture. I have also added roasted zucchini as well and it also caramelizes very nicely. The roasting really concentrates the flavors. Please let me know how it turns out!

Chocolate_peppermint_truffle_cookies_032 Reply

I love the flavor of browned butter in a bechamel sauce - I did the same thing for my entry. It really adds some great depth to it! Great marriage with the butternut squash too. I'll have to try yours too - thanks for posting.

Monkeys Reply

Your brussel sprout recipe sounds so good! I will definitely try it as well!

Chocolate_peppermint_truffle_cookies_032 Reply

Thanks so much!!

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