Roasted Butternut Squash, Spinach and Caramelised Onion Lasagne

The key to this dish is to caramelise your onions. I love ‘browning’ onions and this recipe uses a whopping six! Caramelising turns an onion’s sharp flavour into something sweetish and yummy.
Allrecipes.com has a great tutorial on caramelizing onions. It’s one of my go-to sites for all manner of culinary information. For example, I may have left-over beetroots and don’t know what to do with them. I just type ‘beetroot’ in the search box and voilà! Endless inspiration for beetroots…

The original recipe for this dish came from Claire Thomas, the US food blogger and TV personality, The Kitchy Kitchen. I absolutely love butternut squash, simply roasted or in my Beef and Butternut Squash Thai Red Curry. I modified the original recipe to make it Swahili Coast-friendly by using locally-made pizza mozzarella cheese and asiago cheese from CEFA Njombe Cheese Company (available at Deli Supermarket at Oysterbay Shopping Centre). I also doubled the amount of onions and used my version of béchamel sauce.

If you want an indulgent, vegetarian main course for a dinner party, this is it!

You will need:

• 6 cups butternut squash, cut into 1/2″ cubes (from 3 medium-sized butternut squash)
• 2 cups spinach or mchicha (local spinach-type leaves) washed, dried and finely chopped
• 6 medium-sized red onions, thinly sliced
• 500g pack of lasagna sheets (I use oven-ready/no-bake sheets which require no cooking before you assemble the dish)
• 250g pizza mozzarella cheese
• 250g asiago cheese
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil
• 4 tbs olive oil
• 1 litre batch of Bechamel  Sauce with cheese

What to do

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F/ 200°C/Gas mark 6.
2. Cut off and discard the ends of each squash. Peel, cut them in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Cut the squash into 1/2-inch cubes and place them on a large foil-lined baking tray. Add 2 tbs of the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss all the ingredients together using your hands and spread in a single layer on the baking tray. Roast for 45 to 55 minutes, until the squash is tender and begins to brown. While roasting, turn the squash a few times to be sure it browns evenly.
3. To caramelise the sliced onion, heat remaining 1 tbs of olive oil in a medium pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté for 4 minutes. Reduce heat to very low and continue cooking for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. When the onions have caramelised, add garlic and continue cooking for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Place onion and garlic in a bowl.
4. Make 1 litre batch of béchamel sauce with cheese
5. Cook the spinach by adding 2 tbs of water and chopped spinach to a small pan, increase heat to high and season with salt. Cover and cook for 2 minutes or until leaves wilt. Drain in a colander then cool. Squeeze excess liquid from spinach. Add spinach to onions.
6. Mix the roasted butternut squash with the onions and spinach, set aside.
7. To assemble the lasagna, spread ½ cup of béchamel sauce to coat the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish greased with butter. Arrange sheets to cover béchamel sauce. Top with half of squash, onion and spinach mixture, all of the grated mozzarella and half of the béchamel sauce and then sheets. Repeat layers, ending with sheets. Spread remaining béchamel sauce on top of the sheets then cover with grated asiago. Bake in the middle rack of the oven 400°F/ 200°C/Gas mark 6 for 40 minutes. Then shift to the top rack and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until the top of the lasagna is crisping and beginning to brown.