12/14/10
This recipe we got from Nigella Lawson's "Nigella Christmas" book. I bought entirely too many gourd vegetables at the farmer's market and used this recipe to prepare one medium pumpkin and one Hubbard squash. I've found mixing different squashes together is very tasty and have yet to find a combination we don't like.
I don't entirely understand (or want to) all the copyright issues with cookbook recipes, so I'm not going to post the full recipe here, but I will basically tell you how it works. It's a lasagna recipe and all lasagna recipes are basically the same. This one takes longer because of all the pumpkin-processing.
This recipe has 4 elements: Pumpkin, sauce, cheese and noodles.
PUMPKIN:
First, I cut open and scoop out the seedy guts of the gourds and roast them at 350 in the oven for 20-30 minutes on a cookie sheet. This is my personal step, which I do to make the cutting/peeling process easier once the cooked gourds are cool. I often do this step the night before I prepare the actual recipe and store the chopped squash in the fridge overnight.
Nigella's recipe start with lightly frying sage leaves in butter and oil (by using both you can get a higher temperature without burning) and then adds a couple diced onions and garlic cloves. Then you add a lot of pumpkin/squash (she says 12 cups, but honestly when you buy a squash whole how can you be sure how many cups you will get from it? I'm not that good, so my step is "Add all the squash.") Next you add vermouth (best cooking alcohol EVER), water, diced tomatoes, salt and pepper. Simmer on the stovetop for an hour and enjoy how good your kitchen smells.
At this point I have to share that I used diced tomatoes that I canned myself a couple of months ago. Popping the seal on those cute little Ball jars can be quite a challenge. I usually do pretty well, but this time when I popped the top off with my trusty butter knife (don't ask) the force launched half of the lovely tomato goodness contained in that jar onto the kitchen floor. This comes to be important later when I make the sauce. For now, I accepted defeat and opened another jar of tomatoes (successfully this time) to add to the pumpkin.
Had a cup of hot cocoa in a festive holiday mug to console myself over the tomato loss.
TOMATO SAUCE
While the pumpkin/squash cooks, you can prepare the rest of the lasagna elements. Nigella's version of tomato sauce seemed too watery to me, so I modified it. I combined one 15oz can tomato sauce, the diced tomatoes that survived my can-opening debacle, 1 cup water, a scant 2 Tablespoons sugar, 2 Tablespoons kosher salt and a generous grinding of pepper. With the addition of the water, it ended up being a pretty thin sauce, but with the thick squash and cheese I think that is what you want with this recipe so the sauce can seep through all the lasagna layers. Just mix everything in a bowl, don't bother cooking it. Or you could ignore everything I just wrote and use a jar of good store-bought sauce.
CHEESE!
I love cheese. Here is where the lasagna gets kind expensive but oh so decadent. The cheese mixture contains ONE POUND of chevre (Mmmmmm), 1 and 3/4 cup of whole milk ricotta cheese, 3 eggs, generous grating of nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix it all together (works best when the cheeses are at room temperature) and set aside.
NOODLES
Yes, I start with whole pumpkins/squash for this recipe. Yes I can my own tomatoes. But I LOVE the no-cook Barilla Lasagna noodles. So sue me.
Once the pumpkin was cooked and all the other elements were prepped, this is how I prepared the lasagna. (Nigella did her's a bit differently, but I think my pan was really huge.) Use a spatula to spread everything around.
Really big pan
2 cups tomato sauce
layer of Barilla's magic noodles
half of pumpkin mixture
half of cheese mixture
layer of Barilla's magic noodles
half of pumpkin mixture
half of cheese mixture
layer of Barilla's magic noodles
pour over the rest of the tomato sauce, poking down through the layers so the sauce seeps in
Top with chunks of fresh mozzarella. Cook in a 400 degree oven for an hour. I covered mine with foil halfway through because it was getting too brown. Once cooked, I let the lasagna cool for 15 minutes, sprinkled toasted pine nuts on top and ate. :)
Notice all the yummy pumpkin and cheese oozing out.
Parting Thoughts: This lasagna was quite a bit of work compared with my basic lasagna. Really tasty and a good way to use up a lot of squash, but definitely a recipe for a cold, quiet weekend when you have a lot of time.
