Butternut squash, sweet potato and dolcelatte lasagne

Butternut squash, sweet potato and dolcelatte lasagne

Serves 6–8

Ingredients

• 200g butter
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 570ml double cream
• 1 tsp salt
• 150g dolcelatte, or other vegetarian blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 tbsp finely chopped thyme leaves
• 3 tbsp finely chopped parsley, including stalks
• 250g plain flour
• 550ml milk
• Fresh nutmeg, for grating
• 250g butternut squash, peeled
• 250g sweet potato, peeled
• 1 x 250g box of lasagne sheets
• A little grated parmesan-style vegetarian cheese (optional)
• 2–3 tomatoes, sliced (optional)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and grease a large ovenproof dish (or two medium ones).
• Melt 75g of the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat, and then add the onion, followed by the garlic. Cook until they are soft and golden in colour. Add the cream and salt and stir until the cream starts to thicken; do not let it boil. Just before boiling point is reached, add the dolcelatte and stir until it has melted completely. Then stir in the thyme and parsley and take the pan off the heat.
• Make the béchamel sauce for the lasagne. Melt the remaining butter in a saucepan, add the flour and stir through to allow the flour to cook. Keep stirring until the flour starts to pull away from the bottom of the pan. Gradually add the milk, and whisk everything together. Keep whisking until the sauce starts to thicken, which will take 5–8 minutes. Grate a generous amount of nutmeg and stir it through.
• Using a food processor or sharp knife, cut the butternut squash and sweet potatoes into fine slices about 3mm thick. Take the prepared dish and put a layer of sweet potato slices over the bottom lengthways, making sure you cover the surface of the dish. Ladle the cheese sauce over the sweet potato and be generous, as this layer will help to steam and cook the pasta sheets.
• Place one layer of lasagne sheets on top of the cheese sauce. Then put a layer of butternut squash horizontally across the dish. Follow that with a layer of cheese sauce, followed by lasagne and so on. When the layering is complete, generously ladle the thick béchamel sauce over the top. Sprinkle with a little grated parmesan if you wish; you can also decorate the top with some sliced tomatoes.
• Bake the lasagne in the oven for 40–45 minutes, by which time it should have a golden top. Serve it with some steamed green beans or a green salad and garlic bread.

Food For Friends

Recipe taken from Food For Friends: Modern Vegetarian Cooking At Home by Jane and Ramin Mostowfi with Kalil Resende. Photographs by Adrian Peacock. Published by Infinite Ideas (www.infideas.com) at RRP £16.99. Buy this book as an e-book at a discount from Saga Books.