Friday, May 05, 2006

The ricotta, and my favorite squash

As promised, here am I with a dish using ricotta cheese, and this one was very yummy! I looked through a few recipes for Butternut Squash Lasagna and sort of came up with my own.
When I made the lasagna, I did not measure much, so I tried to figure quantities for the ingredients. Below I am sort of giving the directions as how I made mine, but you can use more or less of the ingredients, to suit your own taste. You can also make it with white (Alfredo) sauce instead of the marinara sauce, which I actually am going to try next, as I believe it may be even better than this one.
I made ours in individual bowls as I wanted to do individual portions, but a Pyrex dish will work just as well. And since the bowls were small I didn't do many layers, but in the pyrex you can do as many layers as you want. (some people like their lasagna to be "taller"!)
It was a very good and yummy dish, everybody liked it a lot at home, so I will probably be making this one again in the fall this year!
Hope you like it too!
Ana

Note: I forgot to mention in the recipe, I also added a few chopped sage leaves to the butternut squash puree when I seasoned it. I like the combination of squash and sage!

Butternut Squash and Ricotta Lasagna
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups ricotta cheese
2
cups butternut squash puree
about 3
cups Marinara sauce (or another pasta sauce you like)
Pre-cooked
lasagna noodles
G
rated fresh Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese for topping

Season the butternut squash puree with salt and pepper, set aside. Mix the ricotta with the mozzarella cheese, set aside (you can season this mixture too if you like).
Coat the bottom and sides of a (8-inch-square) baking dish with cooking spray. Spread some sauce in the bottom. Arrange noodles to cover the bottom over sauce; spread ½ of the ricotta cheese over noodles. Arrange 1cup squash over cheese mixture; spread 1cup sauce over squash.
Arrange more noodles over sauce; spread remaining cheese mixture over the noodles, and then 1cup of the sauce over it.
Make another layer of noodles over sauce; spread remaining sauce evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, cover baking dish with aluminum foil. Bake at 35o° for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes.

2 comments:

Vanessa said...

That looks delicioius! I am going to try it!

Elvira said...

Cara Ana, obrigada pela sua visita ao meu bistrot.

Também gosto muito do seu blog cheio de receitas deliciosas. Voltarei muitas vezes! :-)

Um abraço de Portugal.

PS: sim, em português de Portugal, fiambre é presunto em português do Brasil. Encontrará no blog um pequeno dicionário de termos culinários Portugal/ Brasil.