A Hungry Bear

I love making a big lasagna on Sunday so I’ll have something to heat up during the week. This is a great recipe that I found on Serious Eats, when I was searching for ways to prepare all the acorn squash I’ve been getting from our CSA the past couple of months. The parmesan-sage sauce is a great complement to the sweet squash; I’m sure you could substitute butternut squash as well.

Ingredients: 3 small acorn squash, 1 onion, 6 cloves garlic, 1 cup ricotta cheese, 4 Tablespoons butter, 3 Tablespoons chopped fresh sage, 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, 4 cups whole milk, pinch grated nutmeg, salt, pepper, 1.5 cups grated Parmesan cheese, 2 eggs, 15 no-boil lasagna noodles.

Slice each squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Place the squash halves cut side up on a rimmed baking sheet, brush with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast for 45 minutes at 425 degrees (until fork tender).

While the squash is cooling, finely chop the onion and mince the garlic and sage.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat.

Add the onion, garlic and sage and cook for 5-7 minutes, until the onion softens and is translucent. Add the flour and stir to form a paste, then cook the flour mixture for 1-2 minutes. Pour in the milk about half a cup at a time, stirring constantly, until you have a thick sauce.

Stir in the nutmeg, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring the sauce to a gentle boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often, so the sauce will thicken even more. Turn off the heat and stir in one cup of the grated parmesan.

Scoop the roasted squash out of the skins into a bowl. Mix in the ricotta cheese, and season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

The eggs are going to make the sauce stick to the acorn squash when it cooks with the noodles, but if you just add the noodles into the hot cheese sauce, the eggs would cook and you’d have scrambled eggs and cheese - not what you want. Instead, you have to introduce a little warm cheese sauce to the eggs slowly, so they can blend without cooking. So, break the eggs into a bowl or measuring cup, and whisk.

Scoop out about a cup of the cheese sauce into a separate bowl. Drizzle a spoonful of the sauce into the eggs, whisking constantly - keep adding the sauce by the spoonful and whisking till you’ve mixed in the full cup of sauce.

Now it’s safe to pour the egg-sauce mixture back into the main pot of sauce - stir again to mix thoroughly.

Spread a half cup of the cheese sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 lasagna pan, then lay down 4 of the noodles.

Spread half of the squash over top of the noodles, then cover with another cup of the sauce. Add another layer of noodles, the rest of the squash, and another cup of sauce. Finish with a third layer of noodles and all the rest of the sauce.

Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/2 cup of grated parmesan.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes, until the top is bubbling and golden brown. Allow the lasagna to rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.