This is a wonderful dish for autumn that my grandson Pietro also loves above all: lasagna with pumpkin, lasagna con zucca. Whereas Pietro loves my lasagna all year round, but in the fall I prepare it with pumpkin! Pietro even usually takes an extra portion, but then again at 27 he is almost still growing and needs good food!
Ingredienti
For 6 people you need
- 15 lasagne sheets (approx. 200 g)
- 400 g smoked scamorza
- 200 g of fiordilatte
- 200 g grated Grana Padano (Parmesan also works, but is much more expensive)
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- Sage to taste
- Black pepper to taste
For the béchamel sauce
- 1 liter of whole milk
- 100 g butter
- 100 g flour type 00
- Nutmeg to taste
- Salt to taste
For the pumpkin
- 1,8 kg pumpkin
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Rosemary to taste
- salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- Nutmeg to taste
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Enough of the ingredients, let’s get to work! Which type of pumpkin you take is up to you. In the end, it’s also a matter of taste. I always pay attention to which variety is on sale at the moment. And a word about lasagna sheets: this is probably the only time you’ll hear me plead for dried pasta from the supermarket. Certainly, you can prepare the sheets yourself, I’ve done that too. But the fresh lasagna sheets tend to overcook, and all that’s left in the casserole dish is a mushy casserole. So you’re better off using the ready-made ones! I prefer the ones from Barilla. Soltanto Barilla, as my blessed mother used to say!
How to prepare a bechamel sauce, I hope you know? And please don’t give me the idea of buying the ready-made one in the supermarket. They charge without blushing an enormous sum for some milk, butter and flour in a jar! Put the milk in a pot and bring to a boil with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Do not let it burn! Meanwhile, cut the butter into small cubes and melt it in another pot over low heat. It should only melt, not turn dark brown or even black! Add all the flour to the melted butter and whisk until you get a nice roux. Now pour in the milk and stir nicely until the sauce thickens. Done! And they charge a fortune for it in the supermarket!
Now for the pumpkin: Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds and chop into cubes with an edge length of one centimeter. Not all varieties need to be peeled, but the seeds must come out in any case. By the way, roasted pumpkin seeds are also a delicacy. But that is another recipe. Finely chop a sprig of rosemary and sauté briefly in olive oil along with a peeled and crushed clove of garlic. Then add the pumpkin. In chunks, in case you skipped the chopping part above! Add salt, pepper and nutmeg, mix everything well and sauté until brown (for the roasted flavors!). Then quickly put a lid on the pot and simmer on low heat for another 15-20 minutes. You don’t need to add water, there’s already enough of that in the squash that it releases as it cooks. Stir from time to time. When you can mash the squash with a wooden spoon, it is ready.
Now cut the scamorza and the fiordilatte into small cubes and set aside. Add half of the bechamel to the pumpkin and mix well once the pumpkin is cooked (see above, not earlier!)
Now the lasagna: take a baking dish. about 20 by 30 centimeters in size and no higher than 5 centimeters. Line the baking dish with lasagna sheets until the bottom is completely covered. Then add a few spoonfuls of the pumpkin bechamel and some diced scamorza and fiordilatte on top, and of course some mozzarella and grana before the next layer of lasagna sheets. In total, make five layers on top of each other, seasoning the last layer especially and covering it with cheese. A sage leaf on top for decoration can’t hurt. After all, the eye eats too!
Bake the lasagna for 30 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. If it is still a little pale at the end, you can turn on the grill for a few minutes.
Now let the lasagna cool down a bit. If I put it directly on the table, Pietro would immediately take a piece and burn his mouth. And that’s not supposed to happen. Buon appetito!
