Roast Squash and Sage Lasagne

Name: Roast Squash and Sage Lasagne
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Ingredients: 1.4 kg butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3 cm chunks; 3 tbsp olive oil; 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled; 1/2 tsp chilli flakes; salt and black pepper; 70 g butter; 70 g plain flour; 900 ml whole milk, warmed; 1/4 whole nutmeg, grated; 1 bay leaf; 250 g dried lasagne sheets; 150 g vegetarian hard cheese, grated; 125 g mozzarella, torn; 20 sage leaves; 2 tbsp olive oil, for frying the sage

A lasagne with no tomato in it at all. Roasted squash mashed rough, a nutmeg béchamel, and fried sage leaves shattering on top. It takes a while and it is worth every minute of it.

Prep 25 min
Cook 1 h 15 min
Total 1 h 40 min
Serves 6
Vegetarian

A white enamel dish of squash lasagne with one square lifted out, showing orange squash and white béchamel layers under a browned top.

Method

Step 1. Heat the oven to 200°C fan. Toss the squash with the oil, unpeeled garlic cloves, chilli flakes, salt and pepper, spread over two trays so nothing touches, and roast for 35 minutes until the edges are dark and the flesh gives completely.
Step 2. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skins into the squash and mash the lot with a fork. Leave it rough — a purée makes the lasagne heavy and wet. Taste and season hard; squash needs more salt than you expect.
Step 3. Melt the butter in a heavy pan, stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes until it smells like shortbread. Take it off the heat and add the warm milk a ladle at a time, beating smooth before each addition.
Step 4. Return to the heat with the bay leaf and nutmeg, and cook, stirring constantly, for 8 minutes until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Season, and lift out the bay.
Step 5. Fry the sage: heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a small pan and drop in the leaves. They crisp in about 15 seconds and burn at 25. Lift onto kitchen paper.
Step 6. Turn the oven down to 180°C fan. Build it in a deep dish: a thin smear of béchamel, then sheets, squash, béchamel, a scatter of hard cheese. Repeat three times, finishing with béchamel.
Step 7. Top with the remaining hard cheese and the torn mozzarella. Bake for 40 minutes until the top is blistered and the edges are bubbling.
Step 8. Rest it for 15 minutes before cutting — straight out of the oven it slides apart. Scatter the crisp sage over just before serving.

Notes from the kitchen

Warm milk goes into a roux smooth; cold milk goes in lumpy. It is one pan and thirty seconds in the microwave.
Assemble it a day ahead, keep it covered in the fridge, and add 15 minutes to the bake.
Crown Prince or onion squash both work and taste better than butternut if you can get one.

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Method

Notes from the kitchen

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