Why you are cooking this tonight
If there was a list of dinners guaranteed to make people say “oh my god” when you take the lid off the dish, vegetarian lasagne is not traditionally on it. Vegetarian lasagne usually means a sad layer of zucchini, a defeated handful of spinach, and the look on a guest’s face that says “I am being punished for my dietary choice and I will remember this.”
This is not that lasagne. This is butternut pumpkin roasted at 200 degrees until the edges go dark and caramelised, whipped fresh ricotta from That’s Amore in Thomastown with lemon zest and torn sage, a proper bechamel made with brown butter and a whole nutmeg grated over it, and a parmesan crust so golden it practically has its own weather system. No spinach. No zucchini. No apology, no whole grains pretending to be a feature.
It’s the dinner I bring to families with new babies, in a foil tray with reheating instructions written on the lid in a Sharpie. It’s the dinner I take to in-laws when I am trying to win a small argument I have not yet had. It’s the dinner that made my vegetarian sister-in-law forgive me for the year I accidentally fed her a beef bone broth and called it “vegetable miso” with the confidence of a man who was about to be found out.
What you need
For the roast pumpkin layer
1.2 kg Kent pumpkin, peeled, seeded, cut into 2 cm dice. Kent is the pick for sweetness. Butternut works. Jap works but goes mushier. Steer clear of Queensland Blue unless you have time for an argument.
3 tbsp olive oil.
1 tsp salt.
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper.
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg.
2 tbsp brown sugar (optional but strongly endorsed, pulls the caramelisation forward by three minutes).
For the ricotta layer
500 g fresh ricotta. The stuff from the deli counter in a big plastic tub, not the rubbery supermarket block. Spend the extra $4.
100 g parmesan, finely grated, reserve 40 g for the top.
1 egg.
Zest of 1 lemon.
A small handful of fresh sage, chopped. About 15 leaves.
Salt, pepper.
For the béchamel
50 g butter.
50 g plain flour.
700 ml whole milk, warmed.
½ tsp salt.
¼ tsp white pepper (black is also fine).
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg.
The rest
250 g fresh lasagne sheets (the flat kind from the pasta fridge section). Dried also works, no-boil kind is fine. If using dried, parboil per packet or soak in warm water 10 minutes.
200 g mozzarella, grated. Buffalo mozzarella torn is lovely too if you’re showing off.
Extra sage leaves, about 15, for frying on top.
Olive oil and butter for finishing.
How to cook it
Step 1. Roast the pumpkin
Oven to 220°C fan. Toss the pumpkin with olive oil, salt, pepper, nutmeg, brown sugar (if using). Spread on a single layer across two baking trays lined with baking paper. Do not crowd. Crowded pumpkin steams, it doesn’t caramelise.
Thirty minutes, flip halfway. You want dark edges, soft centres, proper caramelisation on at least some of each cube. Pull out, set aside. Drop oven to 180°C fan.
Step 2. Mix the ricotta
While the pumpkin is roasting. Ricotta, 60 g of the parmesan (hold back 40 g for the top), egg, lemon zest, chopped sage, ½ tsp salt, good grind of pepper. Mix well. Taste. More salt if needed.
Step 3. Make the béchamel
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When foaming, flour in. Whisk for two minutes. You are cooking out the raw flour. The roux should smell biscuity, not raw.
Off the heat for a moment. Add the warm milk in three additions, whisking aggressively each time to prevent lumps. Once all the milk is in, back on medium heat, whisking often. It will thicken to a coating consistency in about five minutes.
Salt, white pepper, nutmeg. Take off the heat. A whisk every now and then while it cools to stop a skin forming.
Step 4. Build the lasagne
Shallow baking dish, roughly 30 x 20 cm, lightly oiled.
Layer 1: Thin smear of béchamel on the base. Lasagne sheets to cover.
Layer 2: Half the ricotta mix, dotted in spoonfuls and roughly spread. Half the roast pumpkin scattered over. A few spoons of béchamel drizzled across. Pasta sheets.
Layer 3: Remaining ricotta, remaining pumpkin, a few more spoons of béchamel. Pasta sheets.
Top layer: Rest of the béchamel poured over and smoothed to the edges. Mozzarella scattered all over. Reserved 40 g parmesan on top. Extra sage leaves dotted around.
Step 5. Bake
Cover loosely with foil. 180°C fan, 30 minutes. Remove foil, 15 more minutes. If the top isn’t deep golden, another 5 minutes at 200°C fan to finish, watching it doesn’t burn.
Step 6. The crispy sage garnish
While the lasagne’s final five minutes. Small pan, medium heat, 2 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp butter. When the butter foams, the extra sage leaves in. Sixty seconds, they’ll crisp up. Scoop onto paper towel, sprinkle with a pinch of salt.
Step 7. Rest
Rest the lasagne for 10 minutes out of the oven. Non-negotiable. Cut into it too early and you get lasagne soup. It needs the time to set.
Step 8. Serve
Big squares. Crispy sage on top. Simple peppery rocket salad with a sharp dressing on the side. Bread if you’re into bread (you are).
What to pour with it
Wine. A medium-bodied Italian red works against the sweetness of the pumpkin. Chianti, Sangiovese, or a Nebbiolo. Australian alternative: a McLaren Vale Grenache. For white drinkers, a Friuli Pinot Grigio.
Cocktail
Negroni Sbagliato
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Cocktail
Italicus Spritz
Italicus rosolio is bergamot-citrus liqueur from Piedmont. Why you are pouring this tonight Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto is the only spritz ingredient that has ever made an Italian…
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Cocktail
Strega Spritz
Strega is a herbal Italian liqueur with saffron, mint, and 70 botanicals. Why you are pouring this tonight Strega is yellow Italian liqueur made in Benevento with seventy…
Read the recipe →Two things that go wrong
The lasagne is soupy. You didn’t rest it long enough. Or your béchamel was too thin. Next time, thicker béchamel (cook it a minute longer) and always rest 10 minutes minimum.
The pasta is still firm. If using dried sheets, parboil or soak them. If using fresh, they should cook through in the bake, but if your pumpkin was wet or béchamel thin, the pasta might not have absorbed enough liquid. Usually another 10 minutes covered with foil fixes it.
Variations worth knowing
Add a layer of cavolo nero
Wilted with garlic, slipped between the pumpkin and ricotta. Dark leafy, extra savoury, brings the dish into proper winter territory.Blue cheese in the ricotta mix100 g Gorgonzola dolce crumbled through the ricotta. Sweet pumpkin plus blue cheese is one of the most satisfying flavour combinations in the kitchen.Swap the pasta for thin slices of potato(parboiled for 5 minutes first). Now it’s a gratin. Same idea, different shape.
Leftover plan
Lasagne leftovers are a universally accepted good. Next-day square reheated at 180°C for 15 minutes comes out better than when you first made it, the flavours have married, the layers have settled. Lunch, dinner, 10pm from the fridge cold. All valid.
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Roast Pumpkin and Ricotta Lasagne
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 200 C fan. Toss pumpkin with oil, salt, nutmeg, garlic and sage. Roast for 30 minutes until caramelised. Mash roughly with a fork.
- Make bechamel: melt butter, stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in warm milk gradually until smooth. Cook for 5 minutes until thick. Stir in nutmeg and parmesan. Season.
- Combine ricotta with egg and parmesan. Season.
- Lower oven to 180 C fan. Assemble in a 30cm baking dish: thin layer of bechamel, pasta sheets, half the pumpkin, dollops of ricotta, bechamel. Repeat. Finish with bechamel and torn mozzarella.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden and bubbling at the edges. Rest for 10 minutes before cutting.
- Crisp sage leaves in hot olive oil for 30 seconds and scatter over to serve.