It’s got stripes of orange and green! And it’s flipping delicious! There’s literally no down side. Feeds 4.
This recipe is multi-stage, but every step is very simple and the end result is fully worth it, promise.
It’s also endlessly adaptable, so the perfect way to use up leftover odds and ends of nuts, fresh-but-floppy herbs and a slightly-past-its-best bag of salad. Especially as bagged salads are one of the most wasted foods in Britain, with over half of them ending up in landfill. This recipe is inspired by and dedicated to the bloody extraordinary Jack Monroe.
- 1 butternut squash, deseeded and peeled
- 1 head of garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled
- Nutmeg
- 3 tbsp veg oil
- 100g bag of salad (I like a rocket, spinach and watercress combo, but anything will work as long as it’s not iceberg)
- 100g nuts, toasted gently in a dry pan until golden (I prefer a combination of almonds and pine nuts but, again, it can be anything you like/have leftover)
- Handful of fresh herbs (parsley is good, or basil, a bit of dill or mint. Not so much the hard herbs like rosemary)
- 2 tsp garlic oil
- 50ml olive oil
- 30g parmesan, grated
- 200g mascapone
- 100g cream cheese
- 60ml milk
- 7 pucks frozen spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out through a sieve
- 50g cheddar, grated
- 250g fresh pasta sheets
- Salt and pepper
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C fan (200C)
- Quarter the butternut squash from top to bottom, and slice into thin pieces around ½ cm wide
- Chuck the slices into a baking tray with the unpeeled garlic cloves, then drizzle over the veg oil and season with salt, pepper and a few scrapes of nutmeg
- Mix well and then stick in the oven for 30-40 mins until the squash is tender and soft
- Take out and pop on the side to cool a bit. Then squeeze the garlic out of its skin and back into the pan. Use a potato masher to roughly crush the squash and garlic together. You’re after a chunky mash, not a smooth puree
- Meanwhile, tip the salad into a bowl, add the herbs, toasted nuts, garlic oil, olive oil and a large pinch of salt
- Use a hand blender to whizz it into a bright green, fragrant pesto – don’t blitz it into oblivion, you still want a bit of texture
- In another bowl, mix the mascapone, cream cheese, spinach and milk. Season with salt and pepper (and a bit more nutmeg wouldn’t go amiss here too)
- Now you’re ready for construction! Get yourself a deep oven dish roughly the size of your lasagne sheets – I like glass so I can see the layers through the side, but ceramic would work just as well. (My lasagne sheets need soaking in cold water for 2 mins before using, so do that too if you need to)
- Spoon half the crushed squash and garlic into the bottom of the dish, smoothing out to an even layer. Top with a lasagne sheet. Then half the pesto, spreading it out to a fairly even layer. Then a lasagne sheet. Then half the mascapone spinach mixture, smoothing that out fairly flat and sprinkling with half the grated cheese. Then a lasagne sheet, press down gently and start all over again. Squash – pasta – pesto – pasta – mascapone + cheese – until you’ve finished everything up and ended with a layer of grated cheese on top.
- Stick in the oven for 40 mins until the pasta is silkily soft, the sides are bubbling enticingly, and the top is crusty and bronzed
- Leave to stand for 5 mins before eating if you can bear to, just to avoid burning your mouth.
If you want to make it in advance, you can make it earlier in the day all the way up to the final stint in the oven. Cover and keep in the fridge til you’re ready for it.