I Love This Butternut Squash Lasagna

Sometimes when I want to cook a recipe that I’ve made before, I search the blog to remind myself of any tips or changes I may have discovered when I previously made it.  Recently I tried to do this and discovered, to my shock, that I had never written about Giada DeLaurentiis’ Butternut Squash Lasagna.

I adore this lasagna (hence the shock that I’ve never written about it before).  This is the third or fourth time in the past couple years that I’ve made it, which is a lot of times, considering that I don’t repeat a lot of recipes and  that squash is a seasonal ingredient.

I love this recipe because it tastes like fall.  It uses no-boil lasagna noodles, which make the whole process much easier.  The squash and creamy sauce are a nice switch from the usual tomato and cheese lasagna combination; it’s still comfort food, but in a different way.  Since it’s just the two of us, Brian and I usually get 4 meals or so out of one batch, so that’s a nice benefit as well.

When I make this dish, I always make a couple changes from the get-go.  I never bother with the amaretti cookies, which I’m sure are delicious but I don’t have the motivation to seek out for just 3.  I substitute a healthy teaspoon of dried basil for the fresh and I use low fat milk instead of the whole.  This butternut squash lasagna takes a little bit of coordination in the execution, but it’s basically 3 steps: making the squash puree, making the white sauce and assembling the dish.  Finally you wait the hour for it to bake and then enjoy the fruits of your labor.

This particular batch came out sort of flat, but it still tasted really awesome.  We only used a pound and a half of squash, so I think that contributed to the flatness.  The squash was so soft after cooking that I was able to mash it into puree with a fork in the skillet, saving myself the trouble of cleaning the food processor.  If you’re looking to expand your lasagna repertoire, I highly recommend this recipe.  Everyone I’ve made it for (coworkers, my parents, my husband) has loved it and chances are good that you will too.