Butternut Squash Lasagne

Lasagne is not something I make often; in fact I've made it only once before this, and that was a vegetarian one too, with kale and mushrooms, instead of the traditional red and white sauces. It was nice but it's one of those things which for me is a bit of a hassle and can end up taking quite a long time, but nevertheless, I had the leftover lasagne sheets from the one I made before, and not wanting to waste them, I made another, this time using one of my other favourite vegetables, butternut squash. I should probably explain here that I'm actually not a vegetarian, I've just started to eat a lot more vegetable-based dishes since getting the River Cottage Veg Everyday book. That said, this is my own recipe, and it's good because it's quite quick. Here there's cheese instead of a white sauce, and the tomatoes can just cook for as long as you've got, in my opinion it doesn't add any flavour cooking them for hours and hours on end, although of course it will thicken the sauce.

Serves 4
Ingredients

1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 1cm cubes

Pinch chili flakes

6 sage leaves, chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

3 tablespoons tomato puree
250g ricotta

9 dried lasagne sheets

150g ball mozzarella, torn into pieces

Parmesan or pecorino cheese

Method

1. Roast the squash in a little olive oil with the sage and chili, at 220c/gas 200c/gas mark 7 for around 35 minutes.

2. In the meantime, prepare the tomato sauce, fry the onion in olive oil until it starts to brown, then add the tomatoes, and tomato puree, and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

3. When the squash is cooked, mash slightly to form a chunky paste, and add in roughly half of the ricotta.

4. Coat the bottom of an oven dish with half of the remaining ricotta, on top of this then place a layer of lasagne sheets, then the butternut squash mixture, another layer of lasagne sheets, then the tomato sauce and mozzarella, and another layer of lasagne sheets. Finish with the remaining ricotta and a good sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes!