Butternut Squash Lasagna

Josh: Butternut squash is on sale, should we buy it?
Me: Yes!

A week goes by and that squash is still sitting on my counter begging to be cooked. What should I do with it? Soup...nah, not in the mood, just have it on the side...nope too much for that, lasagna...yes!

And so it began -- the "I'm going to make a lasagna because I have a bunch of stuff in my fridge that I need to use before it goes bad." As most of my recipes go, I didn't measure, you've been warned.

Ingredients:

• 9 sheets of lasagna noodles
• 3/4 container of part skim ricotta
• 1 egg
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup of fresh basil
• half a bag of baby spinach
• 6 or 7 decent sized cremini mushrooms sliced
• butternut squash
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3 slices or so of prosciutto
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 3/4 - 1 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano (you can use regular parm, this is just what I had)
• white pepper
• ground sage
• ground allspice
• garlic powder

Step 1: Heat oven to 400 and put a large pot of water on to boil the noodles. In the meantime, peel and chop the squash and place it in a 9 x 13 baking dish and coat with olive oil, a sprinkling of sage and allspice over the whole top. Put in oven and cook until soft, tossing often.

Step 2: In a bowl add the ricotta, chopped basil, and the egg. Put this back in the fridge for use later. At this point your water should be at a boil. Add the noodles and cook for 9 minutes. Strain.

Step 3: In a saucepan heat a tsp of olive oil. Roll slices of prosciutto and cut into small pieces. Add prosciutto to oil cooking until crisp. Remove, but leave behind the oil. Melt butter and then whisk in the flour slowly. You will see that it begins to create a sort of paste. Slowly add in the milk while whisking. You do not want this to become lumpy! Add in your parmigiano reggiano and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Then add the prosciutto back in and add white pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Step 4: To use less pots, use the same one you cooked the noodles in. Add some olive oil and brown the mushrooms. Dump in the spinach and cook until it is wilted. 

Step 5: Your squash should be soft now. Move it to a bowl and mush it into smaller pieces. 

Step 6: The 9 x 13 pan should still have some olive oil, which you will want to prevent the noodles from sticking. Layer your first three noodles, then add the ricotta mixture, then 3 more noodles, then the mushroom/spinach mixture, then the butternut squash, now sprinkle allspice, garlic powder and sage, layer on the last three noodles, pour and spread the sauce across the top. Place in oven at 350 for 20-30 minutes until cooked through.