Butternut Squash Lasagna

The first time I ever made a bechamel sauce was as a part of this Butternut Squash Lasagna recipe.  Turns out, knowing how to make a bechamel sauce is a good skill to have as it's the base for most alfredo sauces, souffles, macaroni and cheese and a part of this great recipe.

Here's the butternut squash, diced and ready to cook for 20 minutes until fork tender:

And after it's cooked and blended (has the consistency of good baby food):

One more thing about the butternut squash layer, the recipe calls for some crushed amaretti cookies.  These are the italian equivalent of those super dry, crunchy, tasteless almond cookies that you sometimes see in Chinese restaurants.  Most grocery stores carry the amaretti cookies if you want to add them, I never do and the recipe is just as good without them. 

The bechamel sauce after it's cooked and thickened:

I know when the sauce is done when it coats the back of a spoon and keeps separate when a line is drawn down the back of the spoon:

Although the recipe calls for the use of a blender when adding the basil to the bechamel sauce, I've found that my immersion blender (aka stick blender) works better:

Here's the slightly cooled bechamel with the basil added:

The secret to this recipe is actually in the fact that it uses no-boil lasagna noodles.  No more having to boil the noodles and keep them wet until you actually need them for the recipe.  Here's the brand I use, just look for "No Boiling Required" on the label:

Here's the first layer of bechamel sauce on the bottom of the pan, it helps keep the noodles from sticking to the bottom of the pan:

First layer of noodles.  The recipe calls for 3 noodles but I sometimes squeeze in 4 in a layer and just overlap them:

Layer of the butternut squash sauce:

I use an offset spatula to spread the squash layer:

The cheese layer:

And the sauce layer:

Repeat the steps above as many times as you can with the bechamel, squash and noodles you have.  Here's a picture of the layered lasagna before it goes into the oven:

The final product after it comes out of the oven:

The hardest part about this recipe is really all the prep work it takes to prepare the different sauces.  Once you can master those, the assembly isn't bad and the end result is well worth all the work.  Enjoy!