Sous le charme des courges et des citrouilles
Louise Gagnon
Les Éditions de l’homme
Published: Fall 2011
Cost: $34.95
Newly published, you can find it in library and on Amazon.ca.
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On the French side of this blog, I review this new Québec cookbook devoted to everything squash and pumpkin. I give it a thumbs-up. In this and the next two posts, I will be presenting recipes from the book. Here’s the first one, an amazing Butternut squash lasagna that will turn even squash-haters into believers.
The combined richness of parmesan and mozzarella deliver such big taste and creamy texture, you will never miss the pasta. It was hard for me to slice my Butternut as thin as required. I have bad knives (I know!) and my mandolin scares the heck out of me. But this was scrumptious anyways, plus I enjoyed getting that extra jolt of squash taste from the thicker, crispier slices.
This is what it looks like when a blogger goes squash-buying to test a new cookbook…
Butternut squash lasagna
Serves 6 to 8
Note: You could speed things up by using a store-bought tomato sauce, but simmer it down, otherwise the water produced by the Butternut squash will turn your lasagna into a soupy mess.
15 ml (1 tbsp) olive oil
1 small chopped onion
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 can tomatoes (796 ml/28 oz) — I used whole San Marzano
Good pinch of dried oregano
1 whole, unpeeled Butternut squash (around 1 kg/2.25 lb)
160 ml (2/3 cup) grated Parmesan
Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat, cook onion 3-4 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add in tomatoes and seasonings, bring to a boil and simmer over medium-low heat, uncovered, 20-25 minutes. In food pro or blender, blend until smooth and set aside.
2. While the sauce is simmering, in an oven preheated at 175°C (350°F), bake whole Butternut around 20 minutes, on a baking sheet. Let cool, then peel, remove seeds, and thinly slice using a knife or mandolin.
3. In a rectangular baking dish, build lasagna as follows: tomato sauce, squash, salt, sauce, parmesan. Then repeat until you run out of ingredients. Sprinkle with the mozzarella.
4. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 10-15 minutes more or until tender. Broil if needed. Above all, let rest 10 minutes before serving.
