Is butternut squash lasagna the perfect fall food? Try this easy, go-to recipe

Dana McMahan
·6 min read

Do you have dishes that mark the passing of the seasons? And no, I'm not talking about your annual pumpkin spice latte.

I mean a true dish that marks the change of one season to another. The moment we get a break in our sweltering summer temperatures, we celebrate in my home with the longest-running dish in our household: butternut squash lasagna.

This comforting, creamy, savory pan of goodness doesn’t just delineate the change in seasons ― it takes my husband and me back to the change in how we cooked. Or, in our case, back to when we started to actually cook.

We’ve made the dish for so long that its actual recipe origins are lost to time. I thought it was an Emeril Lagasse recipe from his early Food Network show, the one that kick-started our interest in getting in the kitchen, but a caption on a 15-year-old photo on Flickr (that thing we used before Instagram!) told me we adapted it from an Epicurious recipe.

Either way, it was inspired by a pumpkin lasagna we tried on a trip to Italy years ago. On a wine tour of Tuscany with friends, our lovely guide took us to a farmhouse where one Mama Stefania, as he introduced her, plied us with wine and her delicious lasagna after we met her sweet-eyed cows and played with the big, fluffy farm dogs.

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We returned from that trip determined to recreate the dish, and landed on the version that my husband makes now from memory.

Be warned, like most delicious comfort food, this is not health food. It’s not particularly fancy (although the younger versions of ourselves probably thought roux and bechamel made us sound gourmet).

What this lasagna dish is simply is a delightful fall dish that is probably the most requested thing we make when we host friends. It happens to be vegetarian and it can also be made a day ahead and just heated up for company, making this a serious go-to meal from September on.

We made our first butternut squash lasagna of the year last weekend, and as always, the smell of rosemary, brown butter, and all that cheese let me know it's fall, friends are coming, and no matter what else is happening out there, for this moment around the table, all is well with the world.

So, ready to spend some quality time in the kitchen? My husband can knock this out in an hour and a half, but if it’s your first time, allow some breathing room to make this dish.

We like to serve this with a green salad tossed with a sharp, mustardy homemade French vinaigrette and maybe some sliced pears, and some Blue Dog Bakery baguette hunks. Years ago, the folks at Old Town Liquors recommended a Barolo wine to drink with this dish and I see no reason to veer off course.

Happy fall!

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Roasted butternut squash lasagna ingredients:

  • 2 small or one good-sized butternut squash

  • Handful of fresh rosemary

  • 4 cups milk

  • Salt and pepper

  • Olive oil

  • 4 tablespoons of butter (plus more for buttering the pan)

  • ½ cup flour

  • (optional) 2-3 cloves garlic

  • Box of dried lasagna sheets

  • Optional but nice: crumbled blue cheese and toasted hazelnuts

  • Shredded mozzarella (the better part of a bag)

Roasted butternut squash lasagna directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Half the squash lengthwise (make sure you use your biggest, sharpest knife) and remove the seeds, then drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. (Pro tip: yes it's lovely to buy the squash at the farmers market but if you're nervous about cutting these monsters, you can get pre-peeled, cubed squash at many grocery stores.)

Arrange squash on a baking sheet and roast for 30-45 minutes.

Meanwhile, add several (around six or seven) sprigs of rosemary to the milk in a pan (save some of the rosemary for garnish). Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Once it's simmering, watch and adjust the temperature so that it doesn't boil. Stir frequently for 10 minutes to keep the milk from scorching, then whisk in some salt and pepper. Sample it and add more if you need it (it might take more than you’d think). By now the kitchen should smell like rosemary.

Strain the milk and discard the rosemary. Don’t bother washing the pot you simmered the milk in because you're using it again now to make a roux. Add four tablespoons of butter (and some minced garlic, if you like), and bring to medium heat until it bubbles and starts to brown (two or three minutes). With a wooden spoon, whisk in about half a cup of flour, and stir constantly for another couple of minutes until it reaches a paste consistency. Try to keep it from getting clumpy.

Slowly whisk the milk into the roux, still on medium heat, and keep whisking until the sauce thickens into a bechamel (somewhere between a pancake and waffle batter consistency).

Turn off the stovetop heat and when the squash is ready (careful, it will be super hot!) peel the skin and cube the squash. Stir the squash into the bechamel. (Leave the oven on.)

Butter the bottom of a 9-inch-by-12-inch baking pan, and using your favorite lasagne sheets (we use the basic, no boiling required ones), start layering. Ladle a little of the squash and sauce mix, followed by three sheets to cover the sauce.

This is where you decide how many other goodies you want in your dish. You can sprinkle some blue cheese on each layer, or just some on top. A few chopped hazelnuts wouldn't go amiss in each layer. Keep building until you have four to five layers.

On the top layer, smear your last bit of sauce and top it with shredded mozzarella, as much or as little as you like (we use 10- to 12- ounces).

Whip the heavy cream in a mixer until there are peaks and you can pick it up with a spoon. Using a spatula, spread it on top of the cheese. By now your creation is just about flush with the pan, but don’t let it overflow.

Cover the pan with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees for half an hour. Remove the foil and place back in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the cheese bubbles and browns.

Let the lasagna rest and cool slightly for about 15 minutes. Garnish with minced fresh rosemary and toasted hazelnuts.

Tell Dana! Send your restaurant “Dish” to Dana McMahan at thecjdish@gmail.com and follow @bourbonbarbarella on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Butternut squash lasagna: Check out this perfect fall receipe