A few months ago I experimented with a recipe in an Australian food magazine for pumpkin lasagna.  While tasty, the results were a bit bland with the pumpkin itself tasting flat.  Last week I decided to give it another try and see if I could bring out something more in the flavor.

Using butternut squash instead of pumpkin, I baked the squash until tender and then mixed it to a pulp in my Kitchen Aid.  The original recipe didn’t call for anything more than a modest amount of salt and pepper.  I added more salt and also added curry powder, cumin, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

For the cheese-based filling, I tried a few different things.  For starters, I used a combination of jack and cheddar cheeses instead of mozzarella for a sharper flavor that would complement the spices.  Additionally, I used a healthy dose of cracked black pepper and ground New Mexico chilies, which add fragrance but not a lot of heat.  The ricotta I bought was drier than I’m used to, almost like feta cheese, so I had to add water to it so the no-boil noodles would have enough moisture.  Two eggs were added to bind it together.

Everything was assembled in the lasagna dish and then topped with more of the cheddar-jack mixture.  I covered it with aluminium and baked for one hour at 160 degrees celsius.  After removing the cover, I gave it another thirty minutes until the top was golden and the cheese was melted.

After removing the lasagna from the oven, I melted a few tablespoons of butter with some ground walnuts and fresh sage leaves and then poured the mixture over the lasagna.

Below, our table setting.  Wouldn’t I like you to believe this is a typical weeknight dinner?

And the results of the effort, a much more flavorful and substantive pumpkin lasagna.  Next time, I’d like to try adding back some of the mozzarella to the cheese mixture, though, to get added stringiness.