Ingredients
Butternut-SAUS® puree
1 small butternut squash (1 small squash yields about 2 cups )
10-12 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
4 oz ricotta cheese
½ cup SAUS® Do Everything Sauce
Noodles
10 oz dry lasagna noodles
1Tbsp salt (for salting pasta water)
1 tsp olive oil
Filling
4 Cups fresh baby spinach-arugula mix
1 lb hot* italian sausage
1 1/2 Cups shredded mozzerella cheese
1 Cup shredded parmesan cheese
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425 F (218 C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice your squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds, but leave the skin on. Rub squash flesh with a bit of oil. Place garlic cloves on the prepared baking sheet and top with squash cut side down (the scooped-out squash should cover the garlic so it doesn’t burn). Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the skin is blistered and golden brown and a knife inserted into the squash comes out very easily.
2. While the squash is cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the lasagna noodles in the salted water according to package instructions or until al dente. Then drain, set aside, and gently toss with a little olive oil to prevent the noodles from sticking together.
3. Remove sausage from casings and cook in a skillet over medium heat, until browned. Break into crumbles and set aside.
4. Once the squash is tender and cool enough to handle, scoop 2 cups roasted squash into a food processor or high-speed blender. Add roasted garlic cloves, ricotta and SAUS® and blend until smooth, and scraping down the sides of the blender as needed. It should be thick, creamy, and scoopable. You can add a little milk/oat milk if the puree is too thick.
5. Reduce oven temperature to 350 F (177 C).
6. Assemble the lasagna in a 9 x 13 (or similar size) glass or ceramic baking dish. Add 1/2 cup sauce to the bottom of the pan, spread it evenly and add a layer of noodles. Spread 1/3 of the crumpled sausage evenly over the noodle layer, followed by 1/3 of the spinach-arugula mix, a layer of mozzarella and a layer of parmesan cheese. Repeat with two more layers of sauce, noodles, sausage, spinach-arugula and cheese. Then finish with a layer of noodles, the remaining sauce and cheese as the top layer (it should be a thicker layer fully coating the noodles). Don’t worry if the layers are a bit higher than the edge of your dish, as they will flatten out when cooking.
7. Bake lasagna at 350 F (177 C) for 30 minutes or until the top layer is slightly dry and a little darker in color.
8. Carefully remove from the oven and let cool 5-10 minutes before serving. Then top with freshly grated parmesan cheese, slice, serve, and enjoy.
NOTES
*Mild Italian sausage can be used in place of hot sausage, if you like it a bit less spicy.
- sub plant-based sausage to make it vegetarian
**Mushrooms and/or zucchini are great additions to the vegetable layers and/or in place of meat.