Tribute to Our Mamas!

In honor of Mother's Day this week (reminder – it’s Sunday!!), Kate and I are going to post a couple of our favorite recipes that our moms make. We got our love for food from them, after all, so we thought we should pay tribute.

My mom is a great cook, so there were a lot of options for recipes to write about. I ultimately decided on her butternut squash lasagna, which is one of my absolute favorites. For years, my mom has been experimenting with and combining different butternut squash lasagna recipes she has found online.  

When I asked my mom to send me her recipe, I knew this was not going to be an easy task for her. She cooks with “a pinch of this” and “a little of that” and the ingredients in many of her recipes vary depending on what she has on hand. I’m sure many of you can relate to this, but it sure does make it difficult to recreate any of her dishes! It was a little like pulling teeth to get this recipe out of her, but here it is!! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

¼ c. butter

¼ c. flour

1 ½ c. butternut squash, cubed and cooked until fork tender (boiled or steamed)

3 amaretti cookies crumbled (these can be tricky to find, but I usually get them at TJ Maxx)

3 c. milk

¼ c. fresh sage, minced

1 - 8 oz. container mascarpone cheese

Pinch of nutmeg

½ c. chopped walnuts

Salt and pepper

12 no boil lasagna noodles

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ c. grated parmesan 

In a skillet, melt the butter then add flour and stir to make a roux. Next add milk and stir until it’s slightly thickened. Add all the ingredients (except last 3 on the list - lasagna noodles, mozzarella and parmesan cheese) along with flour mixture into blender or food processer. Blend until thick and smooth. 

Spray a 13x9 pan and preheat oven to 375. Spread ¼ of the mixture on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Place 4 lasagna noodles on top of the mixture. Repeat – layering 3 times. Top with mozzarella cheese and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes covered, then remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Feel free to play around with this recipe a little - I know my mom does all the time! One thing I’ve seen her try (and I really like) is frying the sage in butter before adding it to the blender.  You can crumble some of the fried sage on top of the lasagna before you bake it as well. It adds a great texture to the dish! I also wanted to point out that you can find cubed butternut squash at Trader Joe's. This is great because it takes a lot of work out of preparing the butternut squash. I'm all about simplifying!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!!