Roasted Butternut Squash Lasagna

Any Downton Abby fans out there? Season 4 started this evening, and we were so looking forward to it. We didn't discover the series until the last episode of Season 2, so we bought the DVDs and got caught up before Season 3 started. We loved it from the first episode. It astonishes me how popular it's been. Now there's a quilt fabric line for Downton Abby, and I came across a book of knitted garments for it also.

We are supposed to get more freezing rain tonight, but the high tomorrow is supposed to be 45. Must be the January thaw. Too bad it's only going to last one day. The low tomorrow night will be 8 degrees. If you haven't already figured it out, I love Weather. A Weather Geek, as another blogger once told me.

My husband does most of the cooking at our house because I've hated to cook since I was a kid, but once in a while I get the urge. This afternoon I made a pot of spaghetti, which we haven't had in ages, for supper tomorrow night; and we also made a roasted butternut squash lasagna for supper tonight. My favorite knitting pal shared some absolutely fabulous butternut squash gnocchi a month or so ago, and I've had butternut squash in my head ever since.

The recipe came from the Oct 12, 13 issue of the little Parade magazine that comes in the Sunday paper. I stashed it away in my pile of recipes and came across it a couple days ago, so decided to try it. It was so good! Here's the recipe. It's also available free online if you google it. One note: we cut this recipe in half, baked it in a bit smaller baking dish (8 x 11?), made two layers instead of four, and it was enough to serve 5 or 6 people. We had it with Caesar salad. Also, I didn't use a food processor to puree the squash. I just used a potato masher and a wooden spoon to mix in the milk.

Roasted Butternut Squash Lasagna

Ingredients

• 1 large butternut squash (about 4 lb) cut into ½-inch pieces
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 5¾ cups milk, divided
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 7 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 7 Tbsp flour
• 12 no-boil lasagna noodles
• ¾ lb fresh mozzarella, sliced ¼-inch thick

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Toss butternut squash with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Divide between 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. Roast, rotating trays halfway through, until tender and golden, about 40 minutes.
2. Transfer to a food processor along with ¾ cup milk, thyme, and ¼ cup water. Puree.
3. Make white sauce: Melt butter over ­medium heat in a medium saucepan, then whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, until tan, about 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in remaining 5 cups milk and cook, whisking, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Season with 2 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper.
4. Spread about ½ cup white sauce evenly across bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Top with 3 noodles. Dollop 1 cup squash over noodles and use the back of a spoon to carefully spread into an even layer, covering ­noodles completely. Top with 1 cup sauce, using back of spoon to spread evenly. Repeat the noodle, squash, and sauce layers 3 more times.
5. Arrange mozzarella slices on top and ­season with pepper. Cover with foil; bake 50 minutes. Increase heat to 475°F, remove foil, and bake until mozzarella is golden in spots, 5 to 10 more minutes. Let stand at least 15 minutes before serving.