Butternut Squash Lasagna with Almond Milk Ricotta

Yeah, you read that right. Almond milk ricotta! Let me explain.

Last Sunday I went to the grocery store with my trusty list in hand, ready to pick up ingredients to make mini meatloaf cups (which I still might try to make someday...) When lo and behold, while torturing myself walking through the cheese aisle, I spotted a tub of Kite Hill brand almond milk cheese in a color I didn't recognize. Upon further investigation, I discovered it was almond milk ricotta. Now if you don't know anything about nut milk cheese, I'm sure from the name alone you can conjure up some ideas about how it usually tastes. In my very humble opinion, it is usually quite rubbery and gross. However, the folks over at Kite Hill have apparently figured out how to do magic with almond milk and have turned it into glorious ricotta. So naturally, I scooped this magnificent tub of almond milk ricotta and reworked the grocery list to make one of my favorite winter meals, Butternut Squash Lasagna.

Using butternut squash noodles instead of lasagna sheets is genius and whoever came up with the idea I pretty much want to marry. Because it's just that awesome. I've made variations of this lasagna many times, all sans cheese, except for that time I made my own cashew ricotta and subsequently added 8,000 calories to an 8x8 lasagna. Okay fine maybe it wasn't that much but adding all those nuts really threw off the balance of fat/protein/carb and not in a good way.

The lasagna is great without the faux ricotta but if you're like me and dream of ooey gooey ricotta between sheets of butternut squash (what you don't have dreams like that?), then this is a great alternative. And if you're not like me and can tolerate actual cheese, like, from a cow, and you want to add that in here then we are no longer friends and you and your naturally occurring lactate enzymes can go pound sand.

Ready to cook? Okay!

What you'll need

1/2 butternut squash (I cheated and bought the pre-peeled and pre-cut from the store)
4-6 sweet Italian sausages (depending on how meaty you want your sauce)
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (watch out for hidden sugar!)
2 eggs
8 ounces of Kite Hill Almond Milk Ricotta
2 cups of baby spinach
1 and 1/2 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
pinch of salt and pepper

What you'll do

1. Remove the sausage from the casing and add to a large skillet along with 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning, making sure that you're breaking up the sausage into crumbles as it cooks.

2. While your sausage is cooking, you'll want to prep your butternut squash noodles. Cut the "bulb" part off of the squash "neck" (very technical terms here). We want the neck but be sure to save your bulb for something else!
3. With a mandolin, very carefully slice the squash into sheets. You'll want these pretty thin so they cook through. Depending on the size of your squash, you may use all of the neck or only half. You'll want to mandolin about 20 sheets.

4. Once the sausage is cooked, add the jar of tomato sauce to the skillet and bring up to a simmer.
5. While the sauce and sausage mixture is heating up, in a separate bowl, combine the ricotta and the eggs with the other 1/2 tablespoon of Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powder, and a pinch of salt and pepper.
6. Add the baby spinach to the sausage and sauce and let cook until wilted

7. In an 8x8 glass baking dish, add a couple of spoonfuls of the sauce mixture to the bottom of the pan and spread out, just to "grease" the pan a bit. Then add sheets of butternut squash in one layer until you cover the dish. Next add cheese mixture and spread out over the squash until covered in a thin but consistent layer. Then add spoonfuls of the sauce mixture and spread out in a consistent layer. Repeat this process - squash, cheese, sauce -  until all your ingredients are gone. I usually get about 3 layers in of each, with my last layer being light on sauce so more of the cheese is exposed.

8. Bake in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes, or until the lasagna is nice and bubbly.
9. Let cool for about 5 minutes before digging in and enjoying!