Roasted Butternut Squash & Goat Cheese Lasagna

So for our first recipe we decided on Roasted Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Lasagna. I'm not really sure how we arrived at this one. I think Alison had said she had a hankering for some goat cheese and I was thinking I really like squash... so when I saw this recipe we decided to try it. Then we decided to start a cooking blog. Since this was the most recent recipe we'd talked about, it was chosen to be our first post.

The reason I'm telling you how it was decided upon is because this definitely isn't something I'd normally try and isn't representative of what you'll see on this blog of food coming out of my kitchen. (Especially since it's essentially meatless and contains goat cheese- I cook for a man and a two year old. Not really gonna fly

It sounds fancy and it kinda is. We wore fur coats while making it. And snacked on baluga caviar. (or whatever fancy people snack on)

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the process. (clicking the image will make it larger)

And the final product....


TA DA!

Doesn't it look so yummy? It was pretty good... to the gals anyway. The husbands weren't big fans and we didn't even offer it to the littles. We ate pretty late and fed the kids earlier. If I were to make this one again I would add meat and maybe not use as much of the goat 
cheese, it did have quite a strong flavor.


Here is the recipe taken from this site, Perry's Plate:


6 slices of uncooked bacon
1 1/2 cups smashed roasted butternut squash (see note)
8 ounces goat cheese
1/3 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
2 T minced fresh sage or 1/2 tsp dried ground sage + 2 sprigs of fresh sage to fry for garnish
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/8 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
3 cups marinara sauce (about 25 oz or so)
9 no-boil lasagna noodles
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Fry the bacon (sliced or whole, whichever you prefer) in a medium saucepan over medium heat until it crisps up. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Meanwhile, remove leaves from the 2 sprigs of fresh sage and add to the hot bacon drippings after you remove the cooked bacon. Fry for about 45 seconds or so until they, too, crisp up. Remove fried leaves from skillet and set aside with cooked bacon bits.

In a small bowl combine the goat cheese, ricotta cheese, egg, 2 T minced fresh sage, salt & pepper. Mix thoroughly. Set aside.

Prepare an 11x7 inch casserole dish with nonstick spray and add spread a couple spoonfuls of marinara sauce in the bottom. Put a layer of lasagna noodles over the sauce. I used three, but I had to break one to make it fit. Spread about 1/2 cup smashed squash over noodles, followed by 1/3 of the goat cheese mixture, 1/3 of the marinara sauce and 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella. Repeat layering two more times with remaining ingredients and top with remaining mozzarella cheese.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake, uncovered, for another 15 minutes until everything is bubbly, heated through, and the cheese begins to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and top with reserved bacon bits and fried sage. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.

Makes about 6 servings.


So there it is.  The first post.  We hope you'll join us in this new adventure!


Happy Cooking!
Kristie