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This butternut squash lasagna recipe is incredible! Ricotta, Pecorino, and sage make a stunning dinner that pleases everyone.
Welcome to your new favorite fall dinner: Butternut Squash Lasagna with Sage! The flavors are impeccable: creamy ricotta, punchy Pecorino, and fresh sage envelop the sweet squash in a cozy embrace. In fact, an embrace is just what it feels like when you take a bite! It’s a bit of prep work, but we’ve simplified a few steps so you don’t need a nap once you throw it in the oven. Every mouthful is a bit of sweet, savory, creamy, herby, and altogether irresistible.
Ingredients in butternut squash lasagna
Butternut squash lasagna can take ages to make, especially if you roast the squash and make a béchamel sauce. This recipe is simplified: you’ll boil the squash and make a quick sauce using ricotta cheese that doesn’t require any heating on the stovetop. Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe:
- Butternut squash (medium)
- Ricotta, Mozzarella and Pecorino cheese
- Milk
- Lasagna noodles
- Olive oil
- Garlic powder, nutmeg salt and pepper
- Fresh sage
- Lemon
This recipe comes out stunning: it’s ideal for entertaining! It’s perfect for fall dinner parties, and would be a great Thanksgiving recipe or for Christmas dinner.
How to cut butternut squash: some tips!
The hardest part of making a butternut squash lasagna? Cutting the squash. Butternut squash is a notoriously difficult vegetable to tackle. We’ve got a few tips for cutting squash without breaking into a sweet:
- Watch the video! First, watch this quick video of How to Cut Butternut Squash. It’s helpful to watch the method.
- Use a serrated peeler. A serrated blade makes it easier to peel the tough skin than a normal vegetable peeler, which can easily slip. Don’t have one? Try this serrated vegetable peeler.
- Cut off the neck and chop it separately from the base. Don’t cut the entire squash together. Chop off the neck, then peel it and chop into squares! Do the same for the base.
A few time savers in this butternut squash lasagna
If you follow along with us, you might know we’re sticklers for simple recipes (we even wrote a cookbook about it). While lasagna is almost never easy, the concept is pretty simple. But a typical butternut squash lasagna requires quite a bit of prep work. Here’s how we simplified this recipe to save time:
- Boil the butternut squash instead of roasting it. Roasting is our favorite technique for cooking vegetables, but it’s got a longer lead time. Roasted butternut squash takes about 45 minutes with preheat time, whereas you can whip up boiled squash in about 10 minutes with boiling time.
- Make a quick ricotta sauce. A bechamel sauce is more traditional in a butternut squash lasagna, but that also takes time and dirties a pot. This recipe uses ricotta, milk and some seasonings to make a quick and dirty sauce.
The sauce is not a traditional cream sauce, so the lasagna has a firmer texture. It’s not as gooey as you might expect, but it’s 100% delicious.
Make ahead and storage info
Butternut squash lasagna is a bit of a project for a weeknight: it takes about 1 ½ hours start to finish. We love making this for guests: but you can also make it on a weeknight with some additional prep steps! Here are some ideas:
- Make ahead ideas: Boil the butternut squash in advance and refrigerate it until ready to bake (or use leftover roasted butternut squash). You can also boil the noodles in advance and refrigerate: just make sure they’re coated in a little olive oil before refrigerating.
- Or make ahead the entire pan: Make the entire lasagna prior to baking, then refrigerate overnight. Increase the bake time as needed to cook until it’s warmed through and the cheese has browned.
- Storage info: Refrigerate leftovers for up to 2 days. Or freeze them: it’s easiest to cut it into single servings and freeze each in separate containers. To reheat, defrost the lasagna the refrigerator, then place in a baking dish, cover with foil and reheat at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, until warmed through.
More butternut squash recipes
When squash season is upon us, it’s easy to get squash obsessed! Here are a few of our top butternut squash recipes:
- Try delicious Butternut Squash Curry, or fresh Butternut Squash Salad
- Go for Baked Squash, Mashed Butternut Squash or Butternut Squash Puree
- Opt for Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta or Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
- Blend up creamy Creamy Squash Soup or Curried Butternut Squash Soup
- Stir a pot of Butternut Squash Risotto
This butternut squash lasagna recipe is…
Vegetarian. For gluten-free, use gluten-free noodles.
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Butternut Squash Lasagna with Sage
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 9 1x
Description
This butternut squash lasagna recipe is incredible! Ricotta, Pecorino, and sage make a stunning dinner that pleases everyone.
Ingredients
For the butternut squash
- 2-pound butternut squash (medium)
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
For the lasagna
- 9 to 12 lasagna noodles (6 to 8 ounces, gluten-free if necessary)
- 1 ½ tablespoons chopped fresh sage, divided, plus additional leaves as desired
- Zest of 1/2 lemon (about 2 teaspoons)
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
- 16 ounces (2 cups) whole milk ricotta cheese
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
- 1 cup shredded Pecorino cheese, divided
- 8 ounces (2 ½ cups) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
Instructions
- Preheat: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Boil the squash: Peel and cut the butternut squash into small cubes about 1/2-inch thick. (Go to How to Cut Butternut Squash for a video! A serrated vegetable peeler works best.) Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the squash and cook for about 5 to 6 minutes until fork tender (test a piece to see if it is done). Drain, then place in a medium bowl. Mix with the olive oil, kosher salt and garlic powder.
- Meanwhile, boil the noodles*: Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil. Boil the noodles until just before al dente, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Drain the noodles, then drizzle a baking sheet with a bit of olive oil. Lay the noodles flat onto the sheet, then turn them over so they become coated with olive oil to prevent sticking.
- Prepare the ricotta sauce: Add 1 tablespoon chopped sage to a medium bowl and reserve about ½ tablespoon for topping the lasagna. To the bowl, add the lemon zest, nutmeg, ricotta cheese, salt and pepper and milk. Stir.
- Layer the lasagna: In a 9” x 13” baking dish, spread ½ cup ricotta sauce on the bottom of the pan. Then top with 1 layer of noodles, ½ of the cooked squash, scant 2/3 cup cheese sauce, 1 cup mozzarella and ⅓ cup Pecorino cheese. Repeat again: 1 layer of noodles (you may need to cut a noodle in half for the side, depending on your pan), the remaining squash, scant 2/3 cup cheese sauce, 1 cup mozzarella cheese and ⅓ cup Pecorino cheese. Finally, top with noodles (again, you may need to cut a noodle in half for the top layer), then the remaining ricotta sauce spread with a spatula. Sprinkle the entire top with the remaining ½ cup mozzarella cheese, ⅓ cup Pecorino cheese, and ½ tablespoon sage.
- Bake the lasagna: Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and bake another 20 minutes, until the top is browned. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Leftovers can be refrigerated for 2 to 3 days and reheated in a 400°F oven. (See make ahead and storage notes below.)
Notes
*If you use fresh lasagna noodles, they don’t need to be boiled.
Make ahead ideas: Boil the butternut squash in advance and refrigerate it until ready to bake. Boil the noodles in advance and refrigerate, making sure they’re coated in a little olive oil.
Or make ahead the entire pan: Make the entire lasagna prior to baking, then refrigerate overnight. Increase the bake time as needed to cook until it’s warmed through and the cheese has browned.
Storage info: Refrigerate leftovers for up to 2 days. Or freeze them: it’s easiest to cut it into single servings and freeze each in separate containers. To reheat, defrost the lasagna the refrigerator, then place in a baking dish, cover with foil and reheat at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, until warmed through.
- Category: Main dish
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Pasta
- Diet: Vegetarian
Keywords: Butternut squash lasagna, butternut squash lasagna recipe
I made this for New Year’s Eve dinner using our last butternut squash from the garden. It was perfect and delicious. Thank you for your classy, simple, and very tasty recipes.
★★★★★
You’re welcome! So glad you enjoyed.
This was pretty easy, and very delicious! Even the kids ate it and asked for seconds. For sure will make it again!
★★★★★
Delicious! My daughter is vegetarian and has Celiac Disease and her go-to request for Thanksgiving dishes is always butternut squash lasagne. Prior recipes I’ve used have with a bechemel have been a hassle to make and (to me) haven’t really delivered on flavor. So glad I came across your recipe this year! Absolutely delicious and super easy to make. I roasted the squash halves face down for an hour – easy peasy – and pre-soaked gluten free no-boil lasagne in cold water with a little extra milk with ricotta to make sure the no-boil pasta fully softened. Added 1 layer of pesto. Outstanding results, really flavorful!
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed! Thanks for making.
I’d like to make this lasagna in 2 smaler pans and freeze one pan BEFORE baking it. Will that work with this lasagna? If so, what are the instructions for backing the frozen lasagna? I love uour recipes. Thanks in advance for your advice.
We haven’t tested this, sorry!