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Recipe alert: Pumpkin Spinach Lasagna

November is here! Let the pumpkin recipes continue … Tonight: Pumpkin + spinach lasagna that’s easy to make! I love putting my own spin on recipes, so this one was originally a Butternut squash and spinach lasagna recipe, but since I didn’t feel like pureeing a butternut squash and since my grocery store didn’t have canned butternut squash, I decided to try pumpkin instead. And it was delicious. The only thing it needed a bit more of was salt. I’m not a big salt person, wasn’t raised with salt shakers on the table and nor do I ever salt food before eating it, but I made an exception for this dish.

• 2 cups pumpkin puree (canned or puree those pumpkins you carved for Halloween)
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup milk — I used coconut milk and it was delicious
• 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1 cup cooked spinach — I used frozen spinach…1 package in mincrowave for 6 minutes – so easy!
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• pepper, to taste

• 10 oz lasagna noodles, cooked
• 1 and 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• Italian seasoning
• Paprika
• Basil

Combine ingredients of pumpkin filling in one bowl and combine ingredients of spinach filling in a separate bowl.

1. Prepare a baking dish – I used a casserole dish 11 inches x 8.5 inches x 3 inches deep. Grease the lasagna dish lightly with olive oil spray. Spread 1/3 of butternut squash filling on the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle lightly with mozzarella cheese. Top with cooked lasagna noodles without overlapping.
2. Spread half of spinach filling over the noodles. Top lightly with Mozzarella cheese. Top with cooked noodles.
3. Spread another layer (1/3) of butternut squash mixture, then sprinkle lightly with Mozzarella cheese. Top with cooked noodles.
4. Spread the remaining half of spinach filling over the noodles. Top lightly with Mozzarella cheese. Top with the final layer of cooked noodles.
5. Spread a generous amount of butternut squash filling (the remaining 1/3) over this final layer of noodles, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and remaining mozzarella cheese (about 1/2 cup of mozzarella). Generously sprinkle the cheese with Italian seasoning, paprika, basil.
6. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 min. Remove foil and bake additional 10 minutes.