Lasagna My Way

I love lasagna. I'm fairly certain that I could eat it every day and not get tired of it. There is something about the layers. I just love the layers. My lasagna is not your standard tomato sauce, beef and ricotta cheese lasagna. This is different. It's very simple, but it's rich, satisfying, salty and slightly sweet with a hint of nutmeg. It's also very easy to put together, you don't even pre-cook the noodles. It does take a while to bake and cool, so give yourself some extra time to make dinner.

Butternut Squash & Sage Sausage Lasagna~

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 pounds sage sausage (Jimmy Dean)

2 quarts creamy butternut squash soup (Trader Joe’s or Pacific Natural Food Brand)

2 pounds grated mozzarella cheese, 2 cups reserved for the top

1 box of uncooked lasagna noodles

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large saucepan, cook onion in olive oil until soft.

3. Add in sausage and continue to cook, breaking up sausage until thoroughly cooked and is in small pieces.

4. Spray a large lasagna pan with cooking spray. You can use a standard 9 x 13 inch pan, but you’ll need to reduce the ingredients by ¼ or it will overflow the pan.

5. Put a layer of the soup on the bottom of the pan.

6. Make layers of lasagna starting with the noodles at the bottom (three per layer and if your pan is very long, put one at the end as well, but you might need to break it), soup, sausage and onion mixture, then cheese.

7. Repeat layers until you end with a layer of noodles covered in the soup.

8. Cover with aluminum foil.

9. Bake 60 minutes until bubbly and lasagna noodles are thoroughly cooked.

10. Take the aluminum foil off of the pan and sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese.

11. Bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted and browned.

12. Cool until lasagna is set but still warm and serve, 30-45 minutes.