- Serves 4 - Ready in 2 hours 25 minutes -
***This dish can be partially made, up to 24 hours in advance and chilled in the fridge until it needs baking. This dish has another handy feature - it will happily cook at a lower temperature for longer, which works really well if you are going out in the afternoon and want to come back to a ready-to-serve meal***
***If you / your family dislike the flavour of butternut squash / mushrooms, then you can swap out the vegetables and make a more traditional minced-beef or minced-turkey lasagne***
Gather together…
1 butternut squash (large) to give approx. 1kg of flesh.
2 tbsp rapeseed oil or olive oil (to drizzle over the butternut squash).
200g (10 - 12 sheets) of dried Lasagne - I use Barilla lasagne sheets as they come in a cardboard box, without the plastic window and they DON'T NEED PRE-SOAKING!
1 tsp rapeseed oil or olive oil (to fry mushrooms in).
500g mushrooms, thinly sliced.
Pinch of ground, black pepper.
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped (or 1 tsp of lazy garlic).
2 big handfuls (150g) of spinach leaves.
1/4 tsp dried sage.
1 jar (approx. 430ml) ready-made white sauce.
4 small handfuls (100g in total) of grated cheese (e.g. cheddar).
2 handfuls of pine nuts.
To serve...
Garlic bread ( or use 1 panini per person - toasted and then spread with oil and crushed garlic, or lazy garlic from a jar).
Get cooking…
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C fan) or gas mark 4 - and leave it on even after roasting the butternut squash (if you are going to cook the lasagne straight away, that is), as the lasagne itself also cooks at this temperature.
2. Peel, de-seed and cut the butternut squash into THIN large slices and microwave with 1 tbsp water for 10 minutes to start the softening process.
3. Place the now-warmed slices of butternut squash on a large, oiled, baking tray. Drizzle with the 2 tbsp of oil and stir to coat. Bake for 1 hour until REALLY soft, giving a good stir halfway through, so the slices at the edge don't burn.
4. After the butternut squash (if using) has been cooking for about 40 minutes, continue with the recipe.
5. Put 1 tsp oil into a large, lidded frying pan over a medium/low heat and add the 500g of sliced mushrooms. Season with a pinch of ground black pepper and fry for 10 minutes with the lid on, until soft. There will be A LOT of liquid, this makes the lasagne deliciously moist, so just add the liquid, along with the mushrooms, when assembling.
6. Stir the finely chopped garlic clove into the mushrooms.
7. Put the 2 big handfuls of spinach into the mushroom pan, keeping to the other side of the pan (so the sliced mushrooms and the spinach leaves stay fairly separate). Cover and cook over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes until the spinach is wilted.
8. Sprinkle the cooked butternut squash / defrosted pumpkin with 1/4 tsp of dried sage. Stir.
9. (a). Assemble the lasagne layers in the base of a large pyrex / oven-proof ceramic baking dish, about 20cm x 25cm x 8cm. See below for a diagram of the layers….
9(b). Or follow these written instructions (they are a guide only, but you MUST ensure that there is a layer of butternut squash above the last layer of lasagne - to weigh it down and stop any dry lasagne poking out).... spread 2 tablespoons of white sauce in the base . Place sheets of lasagne on top to make a single layer. Top with 2 tablespoons of sauce, then spread with half the mushrooms and sprinkle with a quarter of the cheese. Repeat with sheets of lasagne, 2 tablespoons of sauce, all of the spinach, the remaining mushrooms and a quarter of the cheese. Then repeat with sheets of lasagne, 2 tablespoons sauce, 1/2 of the roasted butternut squash and a quarter of the cheese. Finish with a final layer of lasagne sheets (can double up with any spare sheets which need using up at this point), and top with the other half of the roasted butternut squash, the remaining sauce and the remaining cheese. You MUST have a 'heavy' layer of butternut squash above the lasagne sheets so that the lasagne is squashed down and doesn't curl up and dry out during baking.
***You can now cover the dish with a beeswax wrap and refrigerate the lasagne overnight, for up to 24 hours. You'll need to bake the lasagne for an extra 20 minutes if you do cook it from chilled****
10(a). When you are ready to bake the lasagne, COVER the baking dish with a lid (any large saucepan lid will do, it doesn't need to be an exact fit) and bake for 40 minutes at 180 C (160 C fan) or gas mark 4. Remember to add 20 minutes to the oven-baking time f you are cooking a prepared-ahead, chilled lasagne.
OR
10(b). Bake at a lower temperature for longer, 160 C (140 C fan) or Gas 3 for two hours or so. This works really well if you are going out in the afternoon and want to come back to a ready-to-serve meal. If you are cooking it as a prepared-in-advance lasagne from chilled, there is no need to add 20 minutes to the two hour cooking time.
11. At the end of the cooking time, uncover the dish and put the dish (without the lid on) under the GRILL on HIGH for 5 minutes, to brown the cheese slightly. Check every minute that the top isn't burning under the grill!
12. Serve with garlic toast (toasted slices of white bread, rubbed with peeled-slightly-crushed garlic and drizzled with rapeseed oil).
Adapted from a 2011 Waitrose recipe called 'Roast Butternut Squash, Spinach and Mushroom Lasagne'