Gastrognome - your wish is my command!
Like any lasagna the recipe appears as long as your arm, but it's just a normal lasagna where instead of tomato sauce you use a white sauce and a filling of roast or sauteed squash (great for using up leftover roast squash from another recipe), mushrooms and nuts - my favourites are hazelnuts and walnuts. It was inspired by this recipe but I have altered it somewhat, added mushrooms and metricised the measurements here. It's a brilliant vegetarian main course and perfect for this time of year.
Preheat oven to 220c/gas 7.
Filling:
1kg roasted squash, or raw squash peeled, deseeded and cut into smallish pieces
4-5 large field mushrooms, sliced into thick slices
1 large onion, chopped
large knob butter
couple of cloves crushed garlic
large palmful torn up fresh sage
large palmful torn up flat-leaf parsley
150g nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans all work well - toasted if you've got the time)
Melt butter in a biggish pan, fry the onions until they turn gold. Add garlic, salt and pepper and if using raw squash, add it now and saute 15 min or so until squash is tender. If not, add the mushrooms and fry a few minutes a side until they start to give up their juices a little bit, and then add the roasted squash, herbs and nuts. (If you want you can fry the mushrooms separately with some garlic and thyme and use them as a second type of filling on their own, keeping them apart from the squash filling until assembly.)
Sauce:
2 cloves crushed garlic
large slice butter
5 tablespoons plain flour (I think this is about 50g but I just use a soupspoon)
1L milk
a bay leaf
Make a white sauce. (ie: melt butter and saute garlic over lowish heat in a saucepan for a minute or so, add the flour and whisk into a paste - keep cooking and whisking for about 3 minutes, then add the milk in a steady stream whisking all the time. Add the bay leaf, salt & pepper, bring to a boil (still whisking) and reduce heat, simmer 10 min.)
Assemble:
Filling
Sauce
Your lasagna sheets of choice (fresh, boil or no-boil)
150g mozzarella and 100g parmesan, each grated, mixed together
In a lasagne tin (I use a 35 x 23 cm pyrex roasting dish), spread a moderately thin layer of sauce on the bottom - probably about 200ml (a bit less than a large wine glass' worth). Then layer as follows: layer of pasta sheets, generous layer of sauce, half the filling, 1/3 of the cheese - repeat - and finish up with pasta, remaining sauce and remaining cheese on top. If you like you can try and make sure the mushrooms are all laid flat like the pasta sheets but that has never bothered me so much...
Cover with foil and bake 40 min - uncover foil and bake till top is golden and bubbling, another 10 min or so. Let it stand up to 20 min before serving to let sauce thicken somewhat, and to cool it down - the temperature is like molten lava straight out of the oven so be warned...