A DASH of Cooking: White Lasagna with Butternut Squash and Shaved Brussel Sprouts

This delicious and easy white lasagna with butternut squash and shaved Brussel sprouts layers the two vegetables, chicken sausage, and lots and lots of cheese with a rich béchamel sauce to create this hearty stack of noodle-goodness.

What Goes in White Lasagna?

This was a question that I had been trying to answer for myself for the last few years. It was a cooking challenge I had not yet decided to tackle; the main barrier of which was the combination of ingredients that would go in this creation.

I am personally not a fan of seafood pastas, and an all vegetarian and cheese option sounded like it would just leave me hungry. Not to mention I was really sick of spinach being used all the time and am starting to get tired of kale taking center stage as the replacement. There are so many other green vegetables out there waiting for a chance. So as I continued to mull the magic ingredient combination, the making of white lasagna fell further and further down my cooking to-do list.

However, one day I was going through a file folder of old recipes I had saved. As I thumbed through the dissatisfying weekly and daily meal plans that I had snipped from Oxygen magazine or Women’s Health magazine back in my college days, I found a stack of pages I had torn from some home living magazines and stashed like I was planning to make a holiday meal to indulge in on my binge days or something.

There it was – a recipe for a butternut squash lasagna and immediately adjacent a recipe for roasted Brussel sprouts. DUH. Why didn’t I think of that before? Butternut squash and Brussel sprouts are an ingenious combination and perfect for layering with creamy sauce and noodles. Immediately, I wrote up a grocery list and within the week made up my first batch of this white lasagna. Meanwhile, those impractical starvation diets that I had snipped and saved from the “health” magazines years ago went immediately in the recycling bin, never to be seen again.

Hope you enjoy many servings of this delicious white lasagna with butternut squash and shaved Brussel sprouts.

How to Make White Lasagna with Butternut Squash and Shaved Brussel Sprouts

Loosely based on a number of holiday recipes trimmed from magazines and found in a file from my years in college.

Ingredients:

• 2 small butternut squashes or about 4lbs of squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/4″ thick slices
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• Sprinkle of nutmeg
• pinch of kosher salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 cups whole milk
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 medium fresh sage leaves, chopped
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 12 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente
• 2 cups fresh shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 1/2 lbs Brussel Sprouts cleaned and trimmed, then shaved to 1/8″ wide ribbons and pieces
• 1 lb Italian seasoned chicken sausage
• Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. On two large rimmed and lined sheet pan, toss squash slices with a generous drizzle of olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Spread out into an even layer on the pans. Roast the butternut squash in the oven for 40 minutes, switching the racks halfway through to ensure even roasting. Remove the squash from the oven and reset the oven to 375°F.
2. In a large saucepan, brown the ground chicken and remove from the pan. Add in the diced onion, Brussel sprouts, and chopped walnuts and cook over medium heat. Add more olive oil to the pan if required. Remove the veggies from the pan and set aside with the chicken.
3. Next, in the same large saucepan, heat the butter on medium heat until completely melted and the fats are starting to brown. This should take about 5 or 6 minutes. Add the garlic and chopped sage and cook one more minute. Stir in the flour and mix into the melted butter thoroughly. Reduce heat to medium low and gradually whisk in the milk until smooth.
4. Bring the sauce to a boil while stirring constantly before reducing heat to a simmer. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the parmesan cheese until melted and remove from heat.
5. Now it’s time to assemble! In a very big, lightly greased, casserole dish (mine is 11×17 glass) layer 4 noodles across the bottom of the dish to start the lasagna. You may need to cut or break a noodle or two to get a even fit.
6. Next layer the butternut squash slices evenly over the noodles. Top with 1/3 the sausage, then 1/3 the Brussel sprouts, and finally 1/3 of the sauce, before sprinkling with cheese and starting the next layer of noodles.
7. Repeat the laying of ingredients until you have 3 layers of noodles and ingredients. Top with any remaining cheese and sauce you have and can fit in the dish. Cover with foil and bake for 50 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking another 30 minutes or until the top is browning and bubbly. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before serving, it will be very hot.