I’ve mentioned here and there that our oven hasn’t been working. My father-in-law got a good deal on the stove and we moved it into our house months ago only to discover that while the stove top worked, the oven itself did not. Well, after longer than it should have taken, I finally called an appliance company that sent a guy out last week. He spent about 20 minutes with it and explained that it was just a safety switch of some kind that was flipped. Ah well, at least it’s working. To celebrate, I decided to make something that would utilize our newly working appliance. Enter: Robert Irvine’s recipe for Pumpkin Lasagna thanks to Food Network’s website.
I’d never had or made pumpkin lasagna before, but have always been a fan of pumpkin pie and have had a few savory dishes that use the big orange veggies like ravioli. I figured this would be a fun fall dish to try out, so Lucy and I headed to the store, I got all the ingredients and got cooking. The only alterations I made to the recipe were using sweet sausage instead of spicy and not getting Romano cheese. I had a feeling that that one would just sit around for a while after I finished this dish and didn’t want to waste the food or the money.Oh, I also went with dried parsley and basil for the same reasons. I miss my mini herb garden now that it’s fall!
As always, I started with prep: straining the pumpkin puree, combining herbs and chopping up onion and garlic. From there I just followed the recipe. I just realized I made one other small change to the recommended ingredients, I went with oven0-ready lasagna noodles instead of ones you have to cook. I also accidentally purchased whole tomatoes instead of a tomato sauce, so I just tossed the can’s contents into the blender with some salt, pepper and the herbs and that was my sauce.
The recipe was really easy to follow and produced a great lasagna. The zucchini seemed a little out of place, like it should have been cooked or breaded or something instead of just placed in there. I also think I should have cooked the whole thing a little longer than the 40 minutes I went with because I like the cheese to be a little more brown. I also think I might use more pumpkin next time I make this because it was too subtle. You’d get a hint of it here and there, but I want it to be all up in my palette. Even with those changes I would make, I still really enjoyed the dish. It was fun to try something new and it served us well as leftovers for the rest of the week, keeping its flavor with every later serving.
Pop Poppa 
Looks delicious!!!