Cooking Light: Butternut Squash Lasagna

Every Wednesday Hubs and I go over to our friends house for dinner and to watch Lost. Jane and I trade off making the main dish and the other is usually in charge of salad. When I was in school, the last couple months, Jane did most the main dish cooking and I made up for it with some tasty salads.

Yesterday was the first Wednesday, in awhile, I made the main dish. Since, as you know, I haven't been able to cook much lately, I really wanted to make something I'd never made before... Oh, and it needed to be low cal too! Jane and I always cook low cal options on Wednesday due to the amount of wine we all consume. Mmmmm wine.

So I looked high and low on Cooking Light's website for s dish that looks tasty, involved mostly ingredients I already owned and could be cooked easily at someone else's house or easily transported. This recipe won and it involves my butternut squash friend from above.

*Side note: We have an awesome farm about 2 miles from our apartment that sells organic and local produce... remind me to tell you about it soon.

This recipe calls for a specific kind of marinara sauce, "Smokey Marinara", so I'm going to give you the recipe for that first.

Smoky Marinara
Recipe adapted slightly from here on Cooking Light

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 (28-ounce) can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained

DIRECTIONS
1 - Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

2 - Add garlic, basil, parsley, and oregano; sauté 1 minute, stirring frequently.

3 - Stir in vinegar and remaining ingredients.

4 - Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

Now that you've made the sauce you won't curse me when you get to that part of the lasagna process. "Damn it Allison, now you tell me about the sauce!" <-- See it's done, so you're good :) Butternut Squash Lasagna
Adapted slightly from this recipe on Cooking Light

INGREDIENTS
3 cups chopped onion
10 cup fresh spinach
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded sharp provolone cheese
1/2 cup parsley flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
2 (15-ounce) carton part-skim ricotta cheese
3 cups diced peeled butternut squash
6 cups Smoky Marinara (recipe above)
12 oven-ready lasagna noodles
1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
1 - Preheat oven to 375°.

2 - Heat a large Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add spinach; sauté 1 1/2 minutes or until spinach wilts.

3 - Combine provolone, parsley, salt, pepper, eggs, and ricotta cheeses in a large bowl.

4 - Place squash in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover and cook on high 5 minutes or until tender.

5 - Coat the bottom and sides of 2 (8-inch-square) baking dishes with cooking spray.

6 - Spread 1/2 cup Smoky Marinara in the bottom of one prepared dish. Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; spread 1 cup cheese mixture over noodles. Arrange 1 1/2 cups squash over cheese mixture; spread 3/4 cup sauce over squash.

7 - Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; spread 1 cup cheese mixture over the noodles. Arrange 1 1/2 cups onion mixture over cheese mixture; spread 3/4 cup sauce over spinach mixture.

8 - Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; spread 1 cup Smoky Marinara evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup Parmesan.

9 - Repeat procedure with remaining ingredients in remaining pan.

10 - Cover each pan with foil. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes.

11 - Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes.