Roasted Butternut Squash and Hazelnut Lasagne

This is an old recipe that I’ve been thinking about lately.  I had to search old blog archives to find it and wound up finding it in a sql db backup file.  So, there is no picture on this one.  This would be a good holiday meal or something to serve to company as I remember it is very time consuming.

This recipe is adapted from an epicurious recipe.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND HAZELNUT LASAGNE

For squash filling:

3 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tsp olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup hazelnuts (4 oz)
1 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
4 teaspoons chopped fresh sage

For sauce:
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 cups milk
1 bay leaf (not California)
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

For assembling lasagne:
6 oz mozzarella, grated (1.5 cups)
3/4  cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3 oz)
3/4 cup finely grated Aged Provolone
12 (7- by 3 1/2-inch) sheets no-boil lasagne (1/2 lb

Make filling:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spread butternut squash onto 2 cookie sheets and drizzle olive oil over the squash.  Spinkle with salt and pepper.  Toss to coat.  Cook the squash for 15 minutes.  Stir the squash and swap the tray locations in the oven for even browning.  Cook another 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set aside.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Spread the hazelnuts onto a cookie sheet.  Cook the hazelnuts for 15 minutes, rolling them around occasionally.  Set aside to cool.  When cool rub of the loose skins with a kitchen towel and coarsely chop them.   Set aside.

Cook onion in butter in a deep 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 10 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for about 1 more minute. Add squash and cook for about 1 minute.  Remove from heat and stir in parsley, sage, and nuts. Cool filling by setting aside while making the sauce.

Make sauce:
Heat milk in a medium saucepan on low.  When the milk is warm, cook garlic in butter in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring, 1 minute. Whisk in flour and cook roux, whisking, 3 minutes. Add milk in a stream, whisking. Add bay leaf and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, then reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, 10 minutes. Whisk in salt and white pepper and remove from heat. Discard bay leaf.

Assemble lasagne:
Preheat oven to 425F.

Toss cheeses together. Spread 1/2 cup sauce in a buttered 13- by 9- by 2-inch glass baking dish (or other shallow 3-quart baking dish) and cover with 3 pasta sheets, leaving spaces between sheets. Spread with 2/3 cup sauce and one third of filling, then sprinkle with a heaping 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat layering 2 more times, beginning with pasta sheets and ending with cheese. Top with remaining 3 pasta sheets, remaining sauce, and remaining cheese.

Tightly cover baking dish with buttered foil and bake lasagne in middle of oven 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until golden and bubbling, 10 to 15 minutes more. Let lasagne stand 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

Now don’t ever buy canned pumpkin again!

Ok, you can buy pumpkin puree in a can, but please, just don’t do it in the fall when you can make it yourself. It’s so easy and I’m going to show you how step by step.

First, you want to get some Sugar Pumpkins. These are small cooking pumpkins.

Preheat oven to 375F. Then, cut the pumpkin in half.


Scrape out the seeds and guts into a bowl. Keep the seeds and guts. Place the pumpkin halves cut side down on oiled non-stick foil (or you can oil the cut edge of the pumpkin). I usually just drizzle a little olive oil on my foiled sheet pan and then spin the pumpkins cut side around in the oil. Place them in the oven. They are going to cook for about an hour.

Look at all those great seeds. You didn’t really want to throw that out did you? Pumpkin seeds are highly nutritious and make great snacks (more on that in a minute).

Separate the seeds from the goo. You can do this by squeezing the goo. Put the seeds on a sheet pan covered in non-stick foil. You don’t need to rinse them. Now you can add some oil and seasonings and roast them. You want just enough oil to lightly coat them. I usually go with a mixture of hot sesame oil, sesame oil, a pinch of five spice powder, and some salt or soy sauce. Pop them in the oven under the pumpkins and cook for 15-30 minutes until well browned. Stir every 5-10 minutes.

Here is what’s left of my pumpkin. The goo. Now, you can throw this away or you can add it to vegetable stock scraps if you are making your own stock later. Pumpkin guts in the stock is especially good if you are going to make a pumpkin or butternut squash risotto.

When the seeds are done, they will look like this. Cool and eat.

When the pumpkin is done, you will be able to poke it and leave a dent. Remove the pumpkin from the oven and allow to cool until you can handle it.

The pumpkin skin will now just pull away, leaving you with all the good pumpkin. Put the pumpkin into a food processor and blend until pureed.

Here is what my puree looked like.

You can freeze this and use it later. I like to freeze it in 1 cup amounts for recipes. Or, you can now go and make some skanky pumpkin squares, pumpkin muffins, or pumpkin waffles!

Today’s SLC Farmer’s Market Haul

All this for $31!

Heirloom Tomatoes
Regular Tomatoes
Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes
Swiss Chard
Baby Red Potatoes
Green Beans
2 Eggplant
Plums
2 Zucchini
Butternut Squash
Delicata Squash
Carrots
4 Corn
1 pepper

Now I have to figure out what to do with all of it.

There really are mushrooms in there!

Tonight’s dinner was Swedish Tempeh Meatlessballs with steamed broccoli and maple glazed roasted butternut squash.

The meatless balls are Dan’s tempeh meatless balls. The sauce is Joni’s Swedish meatball sauce. The only changes I made include doubling the sauce recipe (it made a lot and I could probably have gone 1 1/2 times the recipe amt) and deglazing the mushrooms with a couple of tablespoons of white wine. The white wine added a really nice layer to the sauce. To make the dish easier to make, I made the meatlessballs, set them aside and reheated them near the end, just before serving.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that I won’t eat mushrooms. I’ll cook with them, but I’ll pick them out. My husband likes them and I don’t mind the flavor. In the pic below it looks like there are no mushrooms in this dish. That was selective serving on my part. But don’t worry, there really are mushrooms in this dish… 16 oz of mushrooms in fact!

Chickpea Patties with Garlicky Brussel Sprouts, Fresh Corn, and Roasted Butternut

Last nights dinner:

Chickpea Patties from Eat Drink and Be Vegan
Brussel Sprouts from Vegan with a Vengeance
Fresh corn, cut off the cob and sauteed in olive oil and Earth Balance
Roasted Butternut Squash

It looks like one of those old-fashioned plates of food Mom used to serve every night, heh.

 

A new twist on the old pot pie – White Bean, Butternut, "Sausage" & Sage Pot Pie

This recipe has been developing in my head for a few weeks and I finally got around to making it Sunday night. It is full of Fall stuff. The crust is from Candle Cafe’s cookbook. I love it’s hearty wheat and herbiness and really can’t improve on the Candle Cafe version. We really really really liked this and it seemed to get even better as leftovers.

White Bean, Butternut, Sausage & Sage Pot Pie

Ingredients:
2 16 oz cans white beans (cannallini or northern)
1 butternut squash
2 Field Roast Apple Sage Sausages (or italian flavor), chopped into 1/2 in pieces **
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp chopped sage
1 bunch spinach
1/4 cup water
2 cups soy milk, warmed for a minute in the microwave
1 Tbsp margarine
1-2 Tbsp Olive oil
3 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
lots of pepper

Crust Ingredients:
1 tsp fresh thyme*
1 tsp fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp rosemary, minced
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup-ish water

Directions:
Prepare the Butternut (this can be done ahead of time):
Preheat oven to 425 F. Peel with a vegetable peeler, seed, and dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Place on one or two baking sheets lined with parchment or nonstick foil. Pour enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 45-50 minutes (stirring every 20 minutes and rotating pans if using 2 pans) until tender. Set aside. Note that you will only use about 2 cups of the butternut. Reserve the rest for a side dish for another meal.

Make the filling:
Heat a non-stick skillet over medium with 1 tbsp olive oil. When hot, add the vegan sausage and cook for a minute or so until it starts to brown. Add the sage and cook for a minute. Add the spinach and some water to steam it. Cover with a lid for 1 minute. Stir and add 2 cups of the squash and white beans. Stir to combine and set aside.

Make the sauce (a typical bechemel):
Heat margarine and 1 Tbsp olive oil in a saucier or similar round bottom pot over medium heat. When melted, add 3 Tbsp flour. If it looks too dry, add another tablespoon of olive oil (I eyeballed this part). Slowly add the warmed soy milk while stirring constantly with a wisk. Stir until it thickens. Add salt and pepper.

Add the sauce to the vegetables. Set aside.

Make the crust:
Put Whole wheat pastry flour, all purpose flour and herbs and a pinch of kosher salt into a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the oil and pulse a few times to combine. Scrape down the sides with a spatula. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water and pulse to combine. You want to add enough water so that the dough sticks together.

Divide the dough in half and roll out the first half of the dough until it will cover the pie plate. Place it in the pie plate and trim the excess. Pour the filling into the pie plate. Roll out the other half of the dough and place it over the top of the pie. Roll the bottom edge over the top edge and pinch together. Cut for or five slits in the top with a serrated knife.

Cook for 30-40 minutes at 350 till lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes and then serve.

* If your store sells an herb mix called Poultry Mix (poorly named, I know), it will contain a mix of most of the herbs you need and will cost a whole lot less than buying the herbs separately. It usually contains sage, rosemary, and thyme. Don’t substitute dried herbs in this.

** Don’t bother replacing this with any other kind of sausage. The Field Roast really made this dish.

Here is a picture of the filling before I added the bechemel sauce:

And a picture of the pot pie before I cut into it:

The flecks you see in the crust are fresh herbs.

This was the perfect dinner to eat after hanging around the top of Snowbird in on Sunday morning (sad that they wouldn’t let me snowboard down):

 

Squashage Pasta

I’d heard how good the Field Roast vegan sausages were and I’d been dying to try them. So, I grabbbed some Italian style Field Roast Sausages from Whole Foods. Once I got them, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with them so I concocted this recipe in my head while I was driving in the car.  The Field Roast sausages ARE the best vegan sausages I’ve had. They were yummy!

Squashage Pasta
Serves 5

1 med sized butternut squash, peeled, seeded, diced into 1/2 in cubes
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 pinch crushed red pepper
3 Tbsp (or more) pine nuts
1 tsp dried rubbed sage
2 Field Roast vegan sausages, quartered lengthwise and then sliced (or other brand of vegan sausages ~ 6 oz).
1 onion, diced
2 tbsp+ white wine or mirin
5 oz baby spinach
16 oz whole wheat penne

Preheat oven to 385. Place the butternut squash on a cookie sheet lined with nonstick foil. Add enough olive oil to generously coat the squash. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and cook for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, stir the squash and add the garlic, pinenuts, sage, and crushed red pepper. Cook for 15 minutes, stir and then cook for another 15 minutes (total time of 40 minutes). Pine nuts and garlic should lightly brown. If they are cooking too fast, push the squash and other ingedients together in one end of the cookie sheet to protect the squash and pine nuts with the moisture from the squash.

Meanwhile, bring the water to a boil and cook pasta according to directions.

Meanwhile (in the last 5 minutes or so of the squash cooking in the oven), in a large non-stick skillet, heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the onion and cook till lightly browned. Add the vegan sausage and cook for about a minute till heated through. Add a couple of tablespoons of white wine to deglaze. Then add the spinach, cover and cook for about 30 seconds. Stir and then cook for another 15 seconds. You want the spinach to just wilt. Add the squash mixture and stir to combine. Here is how it looks in the skillet at this point:

Drain the pasta and add it back to the pot. Add the squash/sausage/spinach mixture to the pasta and toss to combine.

Roasted Squash Pasta

Tonight we made Roasted Squash Pasta. It was really good. I made a few minor modifications. I only used 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (this was plenty). I cooked the squash at 385 degrees. And, I added the garlic, pine nuts, and spices after the squash had been in the oven for 10 minutes so that they wouldn’t burn. I stirred during this addition and again 15 minutes later. We had it with some steamed broccoli. We both called this one a keeper.

** Note – peeling butternut squash – While this looks really difficult, it is actually quite easy. You can peel a butternut squash with a regular old vegetable peeler. After peeled, slice it down the middle and scoop out the seeds and goo. Then chop it up.