Butternut Squash Lasagna

Another great recipe find that resulted from me needing to use up random ingredients. I was suspicious that butternut squash and spaghetti sauce might not blend well. I was happily mistaken. We like this recipe very much and will certainly make it again.

P.S. my kid broke my camera, so that's why there haven't been pictures lately.

Butternut Squash Lasagna

1 lb butternut squash, peeled, cubed, steamed, and mashed
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion (or onion powder if you're last onion got moldy like mine did :(
2 cloves garlic, minced
crushed red pepper to taste
2 tsp honey
1 1/2 cups cottage or ricotta cheese
1-2 jars of spaghetti sauce
1/2 box lasagna noodles (use oven ready or else make up the regular kind according to the instructions)
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, or less if you're using real Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese

1. Cook up lasagna noodles if you're using the regular kind.This is also a great time to cook your squash. You can throw it in a steamer. I used a microwave steamer and it worked beautifully and relatively quickly. My 1/2 inch cubes were done in about 12 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until just starting to brown.Throw in squash, crushed red pepper, and honey. Salt and pepper are optional too.

3. Throw a small amount (1/2 cup or so) of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9x13" pan. Add a layer of noodles followed by 1/2 of the squash mixture, 1/2 of the cottage cheese, some more spaghetti sauce, and 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese. Do another layer of noodles, squash, cottage cheese, spaghetti sauce, noodles, a little more sauce, the rest of the mozzarella cheese, and the Parmesan cheese. If you don't want so much pasta or you didn't cook up quite enough, you can just put the cheeses on top of your last layer of sauce and skip the top layer of noodles. That works too.

4. Bake in a 350°F oven for 45 minutes or so until cheese on top is getting bubbly.

Rosemary