26 October 2009

Recipe: Roasted Harvest Vegetable Lasagna

I've written before about my parents and their garden. Well, a couple of weeks ago I benefited again from their bounty and generosity. They stopped by the house on their way into the city and dropped off some of their late fall harvest. (I suppose it's sort of like a 'community supported agriculture' delivery.)

The delivery included several butternut squash. Our daughter was coming to Minnesota for the weekend, and we were planning a family dinner on Friday night. (See following posts for the restaurants we visited while she was here.) I remembered making a lasagna once with roasted squash, and my wife agreed that would be good for the dinner entree.

Well, I searched and searched, and for the life of me, I couldn't find the original recipe. I did, however, find another recipe for squash and mushroom lasagna that I thought I remembered making at least once. (Click here for that one that I found on Epicurious.) That recipe called for sauteing the squash rather than roasting. But I figured I could use that as a basis and improvise.

So the recipe below is my adaptation of the butternut squash and mushroom lasagna from Epicurious. Just a few comments first. I felt that my version was dryer than the Epicurious one. I attribute that to the fact that sauteing the squash in broth provides a high-moisture ingredient for the lasagna that's missing in my version. I also wanted to add roasted red peppers, but my wife felt that was too much. So I compromised and only put the peppers on half of the lasagna. My son and I liked them.

1 large (or 2 medium) onions, cut into 1-inch chunks
½ pound whole mushrooms, cut in half (small mushrooms) or quarters (large mushrooms)
2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1-inch cubes slices (about 5½ cups)
olive oil
4 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary (or thyme), divided
4 tablespoons sliced fresh sage, divided
2 15-ounce containers whole-milk ricotta cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese, divided
2 cups grated provolone cheese, divided
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese, divided
3 large eggs
2 roasted red peppers cut into strips (optional)
½ pound dried lasagna noodles

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, toss squash cubes, onions, and mushrooms with olive oil to coat. Spread vegetables onto a rimmed cookie sheet. Sprinkle with half of the herbs and season with salt and pepper. Roast vegetables in oven for about 30 minutes, or until squash is tender and beginning to brown. Remove from oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees.

Mix ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, 1 cup provolone, and 1½ cups Parmesan cheese, and remaining herbs in large bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper; mix in eggs.

Brush 13x9x2-inch glass or ceramic lasagna pan with oil. Spread 1 cup ricotta mixture over bottom. Arrange 3 noodles on top. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over noodles. Arrange ½ of the roasted vegetables over. Sprinkle with ½ of remaining mozzarella and provolone. Top with 3 noodles, then 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, remaining roasted vegetables, and remaining mozzarella and provolone. Top with 3 noodles. Spread remaining ricotta mixture over; sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. Cover with oiled foil.

Bake lasagna, covered, 35 minutes. Uncover; bake until heated through, about 25 minutes longer. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

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