Pumpkin & Mushroom Lasagna

With Fall settling down around us like so many orange leaves on the ground I’ve been in the mood to cook with pumpkin. The Moosewood cookbooks bring back memories of some of my first dates with Eddie in the early 1990‘s. He had copies of “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest” and “The Moosewood Cookbook.” We’d have dinner by candle light and incense with a good bottle of wine, his cat Samson, the Pixies or the Smiths in the background and his amazing renditions of eggplant parmesan. We were both very young, in love and sporting healthy appetites.

It seemed only fitting to adapt the following Moosewood recipe tonight. Of course, as usual, using things I had on hand with a nod at heart health. On the later note however I kind of splurged with the fats. While I used part skim ricotta and a bit of olive oil to sautee the mushrooms and onions … I skipped the ricotta salata and only used a couple tablespoons of Parmigiano reggiano instead of pecorino romano. And of course… only half of the salt outlined by the recipe.

We still have those now tattered copies of the Moosewood cookbooks which, every now and again, we pull out for something that tastes like Hunter Avenue. I find that these come in handy particularly in the Fall as the days get cooler and shorter… in those moments where memories linger in the air like spirits.

Ingredients

• 4 cups chopped onions
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 cups chopped portabellos or other mushrooms
• ¼ cup chopped fresh sage leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup marsala, vegetable stock or a combination
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3½ cups canned pumpkin (29-ounce can)*
• 3 cups ricotta cheese
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¾ pound uncooked lasagna noodles
• 1½ cups crumbled ricotta salata
• ½ cup grated pecorino romano cheese
• Or use puréed cooked or frozen butternut squash. Two butternut squash will yield about 3½ cups puréed squash.

Process

1. In a large pot, sauté the onions in the oil for 5 minutes.
2. Add the mushrooms and sauté for another 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are somewhat wilted.
3. Add the sage, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and the Marsala or stock and simmer on low heat for 5 minutes. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, stir together the eggs, pumpkin, ricotta cheese, pepper, nutmeg, and the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt. Set aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 375°. Lightly oil a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
6. Dip out about ½ cup of the liquid from the sautéed mushrooms and pour it into the prepared baking dish.
7. Cover the bottom with a layer of lasagna noodles arranged close together.
8. Evenly spread on half of the pumpkin mixture.
9. Spoon on about a third of the sautéed mushrooms and sprinkle with ½ cup of ricotta salata.
10. Add a second layer of noodles followed by the remaining pumpkin mixture, another third of the sautéed mushrooms, and ½ cup of ricotta salata.
11. Finish with a layer of noodles thoroughly moistened by the last third of the sautéed mushrooms.
12. Evenly sprinkle on ½ cup of ricotta salata and top with the grated Pecorino.
13. Cover and bake for 50 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 10 minutes, until the lasagna is bubbly, the noodles are tender, and the top is browned.
14. Remove from the oven and let stand for about 10 minutes before serving.

Tagged with: vegetarian