Squash, ricotta, spinach and mushrooms lasagna
Ingredients
- 800 g butternut squash
- 6 button mushrooms
- 1 red onion
- 100 g spinach baby spinach leaves or frozen spinach
- 125 g ricotta cheese
- 9 lasagna pasta sheets
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 60 cl tepid milk
- 50 g butter
- 50 g flour I use kamut wheat for its nice taste
- 6 sage leaves
- nutmeg
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil
- mozzarella or burrata or scamorza optional
Instructions
Instructions for the butternut squash
- Peel the butternut squash and cut it into small cubes.
- Put them into a tin covered with baking paper, sprinkle with olive oil and season with rosemary.
- Cook for 25 to 30 minutes at 200°C. Check the cooking with the blade of a knife. Halfway through cooking, mix the pieces well so that they cook evenly and lower the temperature if necessary to prevent them from burning.
Instruction for the lasagna filling
- Chop the red onion and fry for a good 10 minutes in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil until the onion becomes translucent and tender.
- Wash and cut the mushrooms.
- When you've cooked the red onion for 10 minutes, add the mushrooms and fry for 2 more minutes and set aside.
- Prepare a béchamel sauce: in a small saucepan, melt the butter cut into pieces with the sage leaves. When the butter has melt and the sage leaves have infused the butter, remove and set aside the leaves.
- Add the flour to the melted butter. Mix vigorously with a wooden spoon.
- Remove from the heat, add the tepid milk, then return to a low heat and stir for 2 minutes with a whisk to dissolve the butter-flour mixture in the milk.
- Once you have obtained a homogenous consistency, let it thicken by continuing cooking and put the sage back in.
- Once the bechamel has set, turn off the heat, remove the sage, and add a good dose of nutmeg, pepper and salt, then taste to adjust the seasoning. Set aside.
- Once the squash is cooked, put the cubes into a salad bowl and add the ricotta. Mix gently with a fork so as not to turn the squash into a mash. Season with salt and pepper and taste to rectify if necessary.
- In another bowl, pour half of the béchamel sauce and add the spinach. If you are using young shoots: rinse them first, then chop them finely and fry them for 2 minutes in a frying pan in a drizzle of olive oil. If you are using frozen spinach, thaw it first and then add to the béchamel sauce, stirring with a fork. Set aside.
Assembling the lasagna
- Pre-cook the lasagna sheets in boiling water for 3 minutes to shorten the cooking time a little and make sure that the lasagna sheets are well cooked and tender. You can skip this step if you wish.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- In a rectangular dish (I use an 13 cm x 22 cm dish) which edges have been greased beforehand, brush the bottom of the dish with plain béchamel sauce (without spinach).
- Cover the bottom of the dish with 3 sheets of lasagne, and spread the sheets with the butternut/ricotta mixture.
- Then add the mushroom/onion mixture.
- Finish with a layer of spinach béchamel.
- Cover with 3 sheets of lasagna and start again to lay the vegetables and then the béchamel.
- Then cover with 3 sheets of lasagna, put a layer of plain béchamel. As an option, you can add on top of the béchamel a few slices of mozzarella (di buffula!), burrata or scamorza (smoked if possible) for an even greedier touch.
- Cook for 25 to 30 minutes if you have pre-cooked the lasagna sheets, until the lasagna is golden brown and tender. Otherwise cook for about 40 minutes. In any case, check the baking time a few minutes before the indicated baking times to adjust to your oven.
- Enjoy hot with a small green salad!