Brown Butter and Roasted Squash Lasagna

Directions

1. Getting the veggies ready
2. Peel and dice the squash into 1/2 in cubes. Toss with olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt.
3. Roast squash cubes at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes, opening the oven and tossing them about with a large spatula once or twice. This part is nice, because I can leave the veggies in the oven to get nicely colored and carmelized on the edges and corners with minimal attention. The roasting really concentrates the flavors and gives the squash a nice bite. Set this aside.
4. Separately, saute onions and mushrooms with about 2 Tbsp of olive oil, salt, and pepper until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms slightly browned. Set this aside too.

1. Brown-butter Bechamel and Assembly
2. Melt and brown butter. This does takes a few minutes of attention to make sure it doesn't become overly burned. Remove from heat and let cool a couple of minutes.
3. Add 3 cloves of minced garlic and let stir to develop some garlicky aroma.
4. Put back onto a burner with medium heat. Add 4 Tbsp of flour and use a wire whisk to quickly move the mixture around to cook the flour for 5 minutes or so.
5. Add about 3 cups of milk very slowly with lots of whisking. Add a bay leaf.
6. Simmer for about 5-10 minutes until it thickens up. Add more milk or some chicken stock if it is getting too thick.
7. Add some salt, nutmeg, and pepper to taste. The bechamel is done. Be sure to remove that bay leaf. Set the bechamel aside.
8. Mix ricotta with about 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and about 1/2 cup of water to loosen it up. Don't skimp on the salt in this step otherwise the final product will feel bland. You can feel free to add some parsley, basil, or sage to this as well. Set aside.
9. Assembly into a 9x13in square pan.
10. Start with a few spoonfuls of Bechamel. Add about 1/4 cup of water to help soften no-boil noodles.
11. Add a layer of noodles.
12. Add half of mushroom mix and half of roasted butternut squash.
13. layer with 1/3 of bechamel.
14. layer with 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese.
15. Add another noodle layer
16. add ricotta mixture and rest of mushrooms and squash. Overly this with some bechamel and add another 1/4 cup of water for the no-boil noodles.
17. add another noodle layer
18. add rest of bechamel and mozzarella
19. sprinkle top with additional parmesan cheese and a generous sprinkling of pinenuts.
20. Covered tightly with some foil sprayed some canola oil or SPAM.
21. Into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
22. Take off the foil. If the noodles are still looking very dry add about 1/2 cup of water over the top.
23. Cook another 20 minutes or until top is golden and bubbly.