Fall Lasagna with Pumpkin and Italian Sausage

Directions

1. Pumpkin sauce and mushrooms
2. Heat olive oil in a pan and sautee leek for a few minutes. Add the pumpkin, rosemary, broth, and cook for about 20 min, or until pumpkin is soft. Blend in standing mixer or with an immersion mixer. Season with salt to taste, about 1 teaspoon.
3. In a sauce pan, heat olive oil and sautee the sliced mushrooms together with the garlic for about 5 min. Season with salt and black pepper.

1. Italian sausage sauce, bechamel sauce and assembly
2. Heat a little olive oil in a skillet and sautee the sausage together with fennel seeds for about 5 min and then add the white wine and cook until almost dry. Add vegetable stock and cook until sausage meat is cooked through. Set aside.
3. Make the bechamel: heat the milk in a sauce pan. Add the nutmeg. Melt butter in a separate sauce pan over low heat. Take butter off heat, whisk in the flour, little by little and keep whisking to prevent clumps. Turn the heat on again, keep stirring until mixture turns light brown and then add the warm milk. Cook the sauce for about 5 min and season with a pinch of salt and black pepper.
4. Assembly: grease an 8x12 inch dish with a little olive oil and start with a layer of half of the bechamel sauce, followed by a layer of half of the pumpkin sauce. Put down the first layer of lasagna sheets and cover with half of the sausage sauce. Follow with a layer of half the mushrooms and then the second layer of lasagna sheets, the rest of the bechamel sauce, pumpkin sauce, meat sauce and the mushrooms. Sprinkle the top with grated parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees F, 30-40 min.