Or really, I am just a cozy foods kind of girl. Even in the summer I somehow manage to make summer food cozy. It’s a gift I tell ya.
But first, how was everyone’s Halloween weekend? Asher wore the Elsa dress I gave her for her birthday. For once it was a decent Halloween night here (last year there was a blizzard!). The town of Frisco closes off Main Street and all the little trick-or-treaters get to run down the mile long strip (well more like a half a mile, they don’t close off the entire street) from business to business begging for candy. My parents said it was a really nice night and surprisingly, not all that crowded. Since it’s Monday and the last three days have been a little dramatic around here, I am keeping things semi-short (I will tell you all about it in another post). So let’s get on to this simple caramelized butternut squash and kale florentine lasagna. You see, when I talk about cheesy pasta and such my mind seems to forget all my worries. It’s the coziness of it all. I freaking love coziness like no other.
Also, aren’t my big, medium, little and extra little butternut squashes so stinkin’ cute??? Blake (the kid who practically lives here) gave them to me. His mom grew them at her house in Aspen and she sent them with him for me. I was in love with them and actually kind of sad to cut into them. No more cute little family of butternut squashes. Enter sad face.
Sooo. I think lasagne (did you know that is the plural form of lasagna? I sure didn’t – thank goodness I looked it up!) are the best. You can make them in advance, you can freeze them, they are perfect for company, they feed a crowd and lasagna is a dish where pretty much everyone says, “YUMMERS”. Ok, they might not say yummers, but they should. I like that word, it’s cute. Not to mention, you can almost always count on lasagne being good. Again, cheese and pasta… pretty hard to mess up a lasagna.
Last year I showed you guys my very favorite Classic Lasagna. It’s my go to dish around the holidays and I honestly make it all the time. My family loves it, really everybody loves it. This year though, I wanted a lasagna that was heavy on the vegetables. I am such a huge fan of butternut squash and kale, but the combo together sounded perfect for a lasagna and that was that. I was making butternut kale lasagna and I was making it florentine style. Instead of spinach, I substituted Kale and of course, went heavy on the cheese.
I actually made my homemade pasta and I made it using whole wheat flour, and you know what, it was awesome!! Seriously, no one even noticed the difference and the whole wheat pasta fits really well with the earthy flavors of the kale. I wanted this squash and kale florentine lasagna to be simple, so I am telling you guys that if you want to, you can use no-boil whole wheat lasagna (use DeLallo, it’s the best!). But if you can, make homemade lasagna noodles. It really does not take much time and the little extra effort is so worth it. The noodles melt in your mouth. Melt. In. Your. Mouth. I used the this recipe, but subbed all white whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour. Worked like a charm.
And the rest is simple. I caramelized a lot of butternut squash with a little garlic, nutmeg, sage and thyme. It’s such a good combo and I love the texture you get from caramelizing the squash. I think it is so good. Then I tossed in the kale to cook it down a little and that’s pretty much it. You just need to make your béchamel sauce and then layer everything together. Pretty simple and it’s great for entertaining because like I said you can prep everything in advance and then just bake before eating.
See, now didn’t all that cheesy pasta talk cozy up your Monday?
How could it not? Just look at that. YUMMMERS.
