Beige Food Gone Bad

Some days I relish cooking meals for my family. Some days. But most days I dread coming up with something that all four of us will eat and enjoy. I love to cook spicy, flavorful food with whatever's in season at the Farmer's Market. I love to experiment with interesting whole grains and hard-to-find proteins. My husband is happy to come along with me on whatever culinary adventure I am on. My oldest kid, not so much. I don't know how I could have raised a child who only eats beige food, but somehow I managed it. Oh, he does eat the occasional strawberry or slice of watermelon, and he'll choke down a steamed carrot or piece of broccoli with the lure of dessert on the other side (especially if chocolate is involved). But generally, he's the chicken nugget, pasta no sauce, grilled cheese kind of kid. So...when I started looking up recipes for Roasted Butternut Squash Lasagna, I realized that this was my big chance to get my beige food-eating kid on board for the family meal.

The creamy bechamel sauce infused with sage and roasted butternut squash filled the house with a warm, sweet smell. The recipe was easy to follow, but somewhat time consuming because of the time involved with roasting the squash, boiling the noodles, and making the bechamel. 

It was a true labor of love, and it was delicious. Until I took the first bite and I felt the crunch of a tiny shard of glass between my teeth. Did I mention that the Pyrex dish I baked the squash in shattered into a thousand pieces because I accidentally set it down straight on my cold kitchen counter and not onto the range or a kitchen towel to cool? Oh, I didn't? If I hadn't been so giddy with the anticipation of my oldest son actually eating the same thing that the rest of us humans were about to enjoy, I might have abandoned the project when I should have. When a sane person would have. But instead I just moved the beautifully roasted squash out of the way, cleaned up the mess of glass, and powered on.

After the first crunchy bite, I dove across the table to swipe the other offending plates out of the way before someone else got a taste (but not before briefly - very briefly! - considering whether ingesting a tiny shard of glass would outweigh the benefits of my son eating a vegetable). So if you want to try out this delicious fall recipe, and you know how to correctly handle Pyrex glassware, here it is!

Recipe: Butternut Squash Lasagna (without glass shards)

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium butternut squash

10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed (optional)

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup flour

4 cups milk (I used skim, but use whatever's on hand)

15 oz. part-skim ricotta

16 oz. shredded mozzarella

12 cooked lasagna noodles (or use no-cook noodles if you like)

1 tsp. grated nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut butternut squash in half and brush with oil and salt. Bake for 40 minutes or until soft and cooked through. Set aside to cool. Turn oven down to 375 degrees.

2. Boil lasagna noodles according to package directions. Set aside in cold water until ready to assemble.

3. Melt butter in large saute pan over medium heat and cook onion until translucent. Add garlic and stir for 1 minute. Add flour and stir constantly until very light brown.

4. Add milk to pan and stir with whisk until thickened - about 5-7 minutes. Add ricotta to mixture and stir until well incorporated.

5. Scoop cooled squash into bechamel mixture and puree until smooth with hand blender. Add grated nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.

6. In 9x13 baking dish, layer sauce, noodles, sauce, mozzarella cheese, noodles, sauce, spinach, cheese, noodles, sauce, and a final layer of cheese.

7. Bake covered tightly with foil at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly. Cool for 15 minutes.