Pumpkin – Italian Style

Lasagna is one of those recipes every cook should have in her repertoire.  It always involves flat wide pasta and delicious cheeses along with yummy sauce.  But who says the sauce always has to be tomato?As promised we want to bring you a pumpkin recipe every week during this Fall season.  Pumpkin is nutritious, easy to come by and really good!  So we figured why not incorporate some into the ever popular lasagna?  This is a versatile recipe that we made with ground turkey.  Next time we will make it with turkey Italian sausage to kick the flavor up another notch.  But if you are a vegetarian or just want to have some meatless meals from time to time, or even use this as a side dish, this would be tasty even without the meat.  With the addition of the the browned sage butter, come on!….how could it NOT be good ? 🙂

Pumpkin Lasagna with Browned Sage Butter

The Sauce

2 cans pumpkin*
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 pound mushrooms chopped
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey or turkey Italian sausage (optional)
1 shallot, chopped
1 clove of garlic,  minced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly ground or grated if possible
Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
red pepper flakes to taste
1 cup sherry
Sage butter – (see below)

Saute the shallot and garlic until translucent in some olive oil.  Add mushrooms and cook until soft. Add turkey or sausage if using, and brown.  Add sherry and cook 5 minutes to allow alcohol to burn off.  Stir in the chicken stock, pumpkin puree, and salt, pepper and pepper flakes.  Simmer for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to mingle and get “acquainted”.  Add cream and 1/2 of the sage butter and stir again.  Keep warm until ready to use.

The Cheeses

 
You can use any you like but here is what we used:

1 pound whole milk mozzarella
1/2 pound smoked mozzarella (Trader Joes has a good one)
2 cups whole milk Ricotta mixed with 2 eggs and 1 clove of minced garlic
2 cups of grated parmesan cheese
a pinch of salt and pepper

Browned Sage Butter

1 stick of butter (Italian butter if you can find it)
2 bunches of fresh sage leaves

Melt the butter with the sage and allow to cook over a low flame until the butter begins to turn a golden brown and smell sort of “nutty”, and the sage leaves have become crisp.

The Assembly

Put a ladle full of sauce in the bottom of the baking dish. Spread it around to coat the bottom of the dish.  Add a layer of No Boil lasagna noodles.  Cover the noodles in sauce.

Dot with the ricotta mixture and sprinkle liberally with the other cheeses.

Repeat this process 2 more times to create 3 layers in all.  Top with the rest of the grated cheese and pour the remaining sge butter and leaves over the top.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the lasagna is lightly browned on top and bubbling.  Serve with salad and plenty of bread  🙂

*(As much as we LOVE Trader Joes we do not recommend their canned Organic Pumpkin as we have found it to be very lacking in flavor. Though it isn’t organic, Libby’s canned pumpkin is really good)