Amusing Lasagne

We were having a few friends in last week for a very casual get-together. My husband Tom asked what I was thinking of making and I said "oh, I don’t know. Some sort of amusing lasagne." And he put that in the email invitation he sent out. Well, there I was, stuck with coming up with amusing lasagne. I quite like butternut squash anytime but this time of year it just seems right.

This looks like a lot of work but it goes quickly. And better, there’s no reason you can’t have it completely done a day ahead. Refrigerate covered, but be sure to let it sit out at room temperature for an hour or so before baking.

In Italy, I’ve never had lasagne using the wavy noodles so common here; it’s always with flat noodles. So I’ve often made my own pasta sheets. What a treat, then, to find Barilla makes a noodle that is not only flat but doesn’t have to be boiled before using. If you have them, or prefer them, there’s no reason you can’t make this with the wavy noodles, boiled according to package instructions.

One note: each noodle in the assembly is a "lasagna." All of them together comprise "lasagne." That's the way I spell it, and so does the English version of "The Silver Spoon" cookbook, the Italian equivalent of the French "Larousse Gastronomique."

BUTTERNUT SQUASH-GOAT CHEESE LASAGNE

2 medium butternut squash
2 tbsp. good olive oil
Salt and pepper
3 leeks
½ cup butter, divided
¼ cup fresh sage leaves, minced
6 tbsp. flour
6 cups milk
8 oz. goat cheese, divided
1 large pinch nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
2 cups ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 box Barilla no-cook lasagne sheets
1 cup Italian cheese mix, divided

Preheat oven to 400. With a vegetable peeler, strip both the hard outside and the lighter flesh just under it from the squash. Cut in half lengthwise and with a spoon scoop out the seeds and fiber from the center. Cut into ½" cubes. Spread on a baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss to cover. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Roast until tender and just starting to brown around the edges, 15-20 minutes.

Reduce the oven heat to 350
.
Cut a slice off the root end of the leeks. Cut off the dark green tops and discard. Cut the white and light green part in half lengthwise, rinse well, drain, then slice ¼" thick. In a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp. butter over medium-low heat. Add the sliced leek and cook until just tender. Add the roasted squash cubes and the sage, toss to combine and remove from the heat.

Meanwhile in a saucepan, heat the remaining butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook, stirring, a couple of minutes. Whisk in the milk and simmer until thickened. Add half the goat cheese and whisk until melted into the sauce. Remove from the heat.

In a small bowl, mix the ricotta and eggs.

Assemble the lasagne: Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish (or use cooking spray). Spread 2 cups of the sauce evenly on the bottom. Arrange four pasta sheets on top, overlapping slightly. Spread half the ricotta on top, then half the squash-leek mixture, then one cup of sauce. Sprinkle with one-third of the Italian cheese mixture. Repeat the layers. Finish with a layer of pasta sheets and the remaining sauce. Be sure the sauce/fillings are spread all the way to the edge of the pan. Crumble the remaining goat cheese over the top and sprinkle with the remaining Italian cheese mixture.

Cover the pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until top is nicely browned, another 20-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let set for 15-20 minutes before cutting into squares to serve. Serves 8 to 12.

Goat Cheese-Vegetable Lasagne

On that first cold, gray, rainy day we had last Sunday, friends were coming to help do a little fixing-up for me at my house. I had promised to make dinner, planning to grill out but the weather put a stop to that. Comfort food, that’s what we needed on a day like that, so I made lasagne.

I had seen a recipe on a French language blog that gave me a starting point but as usual, I had my own ideas of what I wanted it to taste like.

This takes a little more work than I usually ask of you, and dirties a lot of prep bowls, but you can do it well ahead, even the day before, and have a perfectly clean kitchen by the time you want to pop it into the oven. I see no reason why it couldn’t even be frozen, but you’d had to thaw it completely in the fridge before baking.

VEGETABLE-GOAT CHEESE LASAGNE

9 lasagne noodles
2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
2 leeks, white and pale green parts, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, cut into julienne strips
1 bulb fennel, white part only, thinly sliced (save some of the fronds for garnish)
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, divided, plus more for the pan
3 tbsp. flour
3 cups milk
8 oz fresh (soft) goat cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 tbsp. basil pesto
½ cup grated Italian cheese mix

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. Cook the lasagne noodles in plenty of salted boiling water for about 6 minutes. Drain and lay flat on a kitchen towel until ready to use.

In a large heavy skillet, melt two tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add the leeks and sauté, stirring occasionally for a couple of minutes. Add zucchini, toss to combine with the leeks, cover and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving as much butter as possible.

In the same skillet, add two more tablespoons of the butter, and one tablespoon water. Add the bell pepper and fennel. Toss to coat with butter, cover and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring twice. Uncover and sauté until water is evaporated. Remove to another bowl with a slotted spoon.

Add the remaining butter to the pan. When melted, whisk in the flour. Cook, stirring constantly for two minutes. Whisk in the milk and cook, whisking constantly until thickened (it will be fairly thin). Add salt and half the goat cheese crumbled into chunks. Whisk until cheese is melted and set aside.

Combine ricotta and pesto in a small bowl.

Assemble the lasagne: Butter a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish. Coat the bottom with ¼ cup cheese sauce. Put in a layer of three noodles and spread with half the ricotta mixture (it will be a thin layer). Add the zucchini-leek mixture. Crumble half the remaining goat cheese evenly over the top and drizzle with ½ cup cheese sauce. Top with three more noodles, the rest of the ricotta, the bell pepper-fennel mixture, the remaining goat cheese and another ½ cup of the cheese sauce. Top with the final three noodles, the remaining cheese sauce and the grated Italian cheese mixture.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned. Remove from the oven and let set 15-20 minutes. Cut into squares and serve, garnished with the reserved fennel fronds. Serves 6 to 8.

NOTES: I keep pesto in the fridge most of the time. You can buy tubes of pesto in specialty markets that would work beautifully for this. The kind that comes in jars also works well. You can grate your own cheese, or find a pre-grated Italian cheese mixture of asiago, fontina and parmesan in the dairy department of your supermarket.