Squash and leek lasagna!

We had friends over for dinner last night and I splashed out to make a big, kind of elaborate meal. A recipe for squash and leek lasagna appeared in the October/November issue of Living Well. It was very, very good and is listed as a light recipe. Here it is for anyone interested in trying it:

10 oz lasagna noodles (ready to bake kind)
2 Tbspn butter
4 large leeks, white parts thinly sliced
1/2 cup flour
4 cups milk
1 tspn dried thyme
1 tspn salt
3/4 tspn nutmeg
1/2 tspn black pepper
1 2-pound butternut squash (peeled, seeded, grated)
6 oz. grated parmagiano (about 170 grams)
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

1. First prepare the leek sauce. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and add leeks. Cook, stirring often, until softened (~6 minutes). Sprinkle flour over leeks and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in milk in a steady stream and cook until thick and bubbly (~9 minutes). Whisk in thyme, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
2. Assemble lasagna in a 9x13" pan sprayed with Pam in this order: noodles, 1/3 of leek sauce, half of squash, 1/3 of cheese, noodles, 1/2 remaining leek sauce, pine nuts, remaining squash, half of remaining cheese, noodles, remaining leek sauce, remaining cheese. (I used more cheese than the recipe called for, maybe an extra 30 grams or so)
3. Cover with parchment paper then foil and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Remove covering and return to oven for 30 to 45 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.
   

I grated the squash by putting it through the grater blade on my food processor to avoid repetitive strain injury, and toasted the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

As I said, this is a really tasty recipe but truthfully it is not to-die-for delicious. I think it's missing a garlic flavour so next time I will add maybe 3 or 4 cloves of chopped garlic to the leeks as they saute. Also, this dish is a bit bland colour-wise since it is all yellow and orange. Next time I make it I will put a layer of fresh spinach between the leek sauce and the squash just to liven it up. Otherwise, no major changes to the recipe as published. It was the perfect meal for a rainy Vancouver evening, and though it looks like a lot of work, it wasn't really that bad. Now we have leftovers for the busy week. Yum.