Butternut Squash Lasagna with Bacon and Walnuts Will Rock Your Holiday Dinner

This Butternut Squash Lasagna with bacon and walnuts is an elegant way to change up your holiday dinner plans. With deliciously roasted chunks of butternut squash, loads of bacon, walnuts, sage, and of course cheese! This is not your ordinary pasta dish.  This is a dish you could proudly serve at any elegant gathering during the holidays or even a for a great Sunday dinner.

I have been making this pumpkin and prosciutto lasagna for many years, and I have always loved it. But I wanted to make something different. Everyone makes everything with pumpkin. I think butternut squash has a much better flavor and I can’t get enough. So I played around with that old recipe, and this is what I’ve come up with. I think I’ve come up with a real winner here. The bacon gives it this hint of smoky flavor and the toasted walnuts have this crunch that adds more texture to this lasagna.

There are some butternut squash lasagna recipes around; most of them use a pureed butternut squash. The puree tends to almost have a baby food consistency, and I was looking for more of a rustic texture. You could leave out the bacon if you want to make a vegetarian version. But I love the bacon in the so much it would be hard to give it up. Mmmmm bacon! Perhaps you could use tofu that was smoked or even a teriyaki marinated one that would at least give more umami to the finished lasagna.

Yes, this does take some effort to make and several pots! But if you are organized and have everything prepped it actually goes together very smoothly. This can definitely be prepared ahead and reheated which also makes it a dream for holiday entertaining. Any thoughts or comments are much appreciated.

Print

Butternut Squash, Bacon, and Walnut lasagna

Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

2 hrs

 

This butternut squash Lasagna with bacon, toasted walnuts, and sage is an eligant and sophisticated pasta dish that even the queen would love and yet it's rustic and satisfying.

Course: Dinner, Pasta

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bacon, butternut squash, lasagna, sage, walnuts

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh pasta dough or 1 lb dried lasagna noodles

The butternut squash layer

• 2 lbs peeled seeded, and cubed butternut squash
• 1- 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 12 oz smoked bacon chopped into pieces.
• 1 large onion chopped

For the béchamel

• 4 cups whole milk
• 4 sprigs of fresh parsley
• ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg or several strokes over a grater from a whole nutmeg
• 1 large onion peeled and sliced
• 10 black peppercorns
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs beaten
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

To finish

• 12 oz Gruyere cheese grated
• 2 cups chopped walnuts toasted for 15 minutes in a 350° oven
• 1 small bunch fresh sage leaves torn into small pieces or 1 tablespoon dried
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375°.
2. If you are making fresh pasta, you could make the dough and have it resting while you prepare the filling and the sauce.

To make the butternut squash layer

1. In a shallow baking sheet toss the butternut squash with the 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and ½ teaspoon of the salt and the pepper.
2. Roast for 45 -60 minutes until the squash is tender and the edges are just starting to brown.
3. While the squash is roasting, fry the bacon in a large iron or non-stick fry pan. Cook the bacon until it is very crisp but not burned. Drain the bacon on paper towels, reserving the bacon grease. When cool crumble the bacon.
4. Heat the frying pan to medium heat. Sauté the chopped onion with 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease or 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
5. As the onion is cooking add ½ teaspoon of salt.
6. Continue to sauté until the edges are starting to brown and the onions have started to caramelize. It should take 30 minutes or so.
7. When the butternut squash is roasted with just the edges starting to brown remove from the oven and place in a medium bowl. Add the onion and 2/3 of the bacon. Let the mixture cool briefly.
8. Turn the oven down to 350°

At the same time you could be making the béchamel:

1. In a 4 quart saucepan bring the milk to a simmer with the parsley sprigs, nutmeg, onion slices, and black peppercorns. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Be careful not to let the milk boil over.
2. Strain the milk through a fine mesh strain into a heatproof measuring cup or bowl.
3. Clean out the saucepan.
4. Into the clean pan, melt the butter and add in the flour.
5. Stirring constantly, let the flour cook for a minute.
6. One ladle at a time, add in the hot milk mixture, stirring or constantly whisking to make a thick, smooth sauce. You can use a small whisk here; it helps if you have one. Let the sauce cook at a boil for 1 minute.
7. Ladle a cup or so of the hot liquid into the beaten eggs. Add the eggs back into the cooked sauce and let cook briefly stirring constantly.
8. Take off the heat and stir in the 1 cup of the parmesan cheese, season with salt and pepper. Set aside until you are ready to assemble.

When you are ready to assemble.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt heavily.
2. Lightly grease a 13 X 9 baking dish with olive oil.
3. If you are making fresh pasta roll it out ending with #4 position in the rollers. Check my recipe for rich pasta dough for instructions. Cut into sheets that will fit the baking dish, you can cut them longer and fold over the excess at the end to seal in the lasagna like a package. When the water is boiling cook 2 sheets at a time of the fresh pasta. And layer as you go.
4. If you are using dried lasagna noodles, cook the pasta according to the package directions, drain let sit in cold water to stop the cooking process.
5. Stir into the cooled butternut squash and onion mixture about ½ cup of the Gruyere.
6. Layer enough pasta to cover the bottom of the baking dish. If you have cut the fresh pasta to do a package fold, let the noodles overhang by a couple of inches. let the excess stay around the edges until you have filled all the layers.
7. Ladle about 1/3 of the béchamel over the pasta and spread out to completely cover the bottom. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the remaining gruyere cheese, 1/3 of the grated parmesan, 1/3 of the walnuts, and a small sprinkling of the torn sage leaves (or sprinkle 1/3 of the dried).
8. Cover the béchamel layer with lasagna noodles.
9. Spread the Butternut squash filling completely over the pasta.
10. Cover the butternut squash layer with more lasagna noodles.
11. Ladle about 1/3 more of the béchamel sauce over the pasta. Spread out the sauce to completely cover the noodles. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the remaining gruyere cheese, 1/3 of the grated parmesan, 1/3 of the walnuts, and a small sprinkling of the torn sage leaves (or sprinkle 1/3 of the dried).
12. Cover with the remaining pasta. If you have fresh pasta overhanging, fold over the overhang like a package and then put one extra on top to seal it.
13. Ladle the remaining béchamel, spreading to completely cover the lasagna. Sprinkle the remaining walnuts, the reserved bacon, more of the sage, the remaining grated gruyere and the parmesan. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil if desired.
14. Bake the lasagna for 50-60 minutes, until the lasagna is golden brown and the cheese has melted. Let cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Recipe Notes

This can be made ahead and reheated covered in foil for 60 minutes in a preheated 350° oven.