butternut squash lasagna for new years eve

we have a church pot luck every new years eve and for this one, i wanted to make good use of the  new kitchen tools i received for christmas……….3 shun knives and a mandoline!!

i used butternut squash that i sliced (so unbelievable evenly with that mandoline!!) in place of lasagna sheets.

a pound of good organic ground pork sausage.

an onion, medium, in small dice.     2 cloves of garlic finely minced.

cook the sausage and onion and garlic together until the sausage is cooked through.  add a touch of s and p and some ground sage to this while cooking.

one and a half boxes of frozen, DEFROSTED AND SQUEEZED DRY spinach.  it really must be dry or the whole dish will be swimming in liquid.

some good bechamel sauce made using about 2/3 stick of butter and almost a cup of flour to make a roux.  add milk whisking constantly until the consistency is thick enough to coat a spoon very well.  add about a cup of parmesan cheese to this sauce. season with s and p and about 2T of worchestershire sauce.  i also use about 1/2T dry mustard to this sauce.

oil a 9×13 cooking dish and begin layering.  this is the order.

a half cup of bechamel on the bottom.  the raw butternut slices.  half of the sausage, onion, garlic (cook until done BEFORE adding to the lasagna.  about half the spinach spread as evenly as possible.  cover with more bechamel.

repeat this step.

for the third layer, cover the lasagna with the last of the butternut squash slices, and finish by covering with the remainder of the bechamel.  i also added some grated mozzerella to the top.  season with a touch of ground sage and some s and p.

i cooked it …..on a sheet pan to avoid having to  clean the oven if it splatters…….at 375 until the top was beginning to golden and it was bubbling nicely.  hmmmm, maybe 30-45 minutes.

let cool for 10-15 minutes to make it easier to slice and serve.  it really is lovely with all the colors and delicious.

let me know what you think if you make it.