Pumpkin And Spinach Lasagna
Pumpkin and pasta go together like peanut butter and jelly. They are a beautiful marriage and every Fall I greatly look forward to eating it. Lasagna's are great for feeding the masses and impressing them because it yields so many portions and obviously is delicious! What I love about this recipe is it's lighter on the dairy. I left out classic mozzarella to keep the fat content lower than a traditional lasagna. When you use a good and freshly shaved parmesan, it should be really strong and can definitely provide enough of that cheese flavor so you won't miss the mozz. It was tricky to figure out the right amount of pumpkin, ricotta and sauce. Most pastas with pumpkin use a simple sauce such as a brown butter or olive oil. You don't typically see tomato sauce and pumpkin together so that they don't compete. I tried this without the tomato and it definitely lacked that little tangy punch. Just a little bit of crushed tomatoes went a long way! Everyone loved this lasagna and I hope you will too!
Ingredients
- 9 sheets Lasagna
- 16 ounces Crushed Tomatoes
- 1 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
Ricotta Filling
- 6 oz Spinach
- 15 ounce Part Skim Ricotta
- 1 Egg
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
Pumpkin Filling
- 2 15 oz Cans of Pumpkin Puree
- 1/2 cup Low Fat Milk
- 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
- 1 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Cook your lasagna sheets according to package instructions. Once they are done cooking, set them aside.
- Add a skillet to the stovetop on medium heat. Spray non stick spray and add your spinach. Cook the entire serving of spinach until all of it is cooked through.
- While your lasagna boils, make your filling. Start with the ricotta mixture. In a mixing bowl, add the ricotta, egg, garlic powder, onion powder and salt Mix well. Add in all of the cooked spinach and combine well.
- In another mixing bowl, let's make the pumpkin filling. Add in the pumpkin puree, milk, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Mix well.
- Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non stick spray. Add 1 cup of pumpkin filling and spread evenly. Add 1/3 cup of crushed tomatoes and spread evenly.
- Add 3 sheets of lasagna pasta the long way.
- On top of the pasta, add 1/2 of your ricotta mixture. Spread evenly.
- Sprinkle 1/3 cup of parmesan over the ricotta mixture
- Add another 3 sheets of lasagna pasta the long way
- Add 1 cup of pumpkin mixture and spread evenly over the pasta.
- Add the rest of your ricotta mixture and spread evenly over the pumpkin
- Add 1/3 cup of crushed tomatoes and spread evenly
- Sprinkle 1/3 cup of parmesan over the crushed tomatoes
- Add another 3 sheets of lasagna pasta
- Spread the remainder of your pumpkin mixture over the pasta
- Add 1/3 cup of crushed tomatoes and spread evenly
- Sprinkle 1/3 cup of parmesan
- Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the cheese has melted. Be sure not to burn the cheese.