The First Hint of Autumn: Butternut Squash Lasagna with Prosciutto & Sage

There is always one evening when summer begins to loosen its grip.

The light is still golden, the garden is still green, and yet dinner suddenly asks for something warmer. Something layered. Something that can stay in the oven while sage perfumes the kitchen and the windows begin to fog.

This butternut squash lasagna belongs to that evening.

I have never been casual about autumn. I am completely, unapologetically in love with the season.

I wait for the first cool morning, the first tree that turns overnight, the first dry leaf skittering across the pavement. I love the impossible colors and the slant of the light. I love pumpkins appearing on front steps, quiet water holding the reflection of red maples, and the permission to make dinner slowly again.

Perhaps I love autumn because it makes change visible. Nothing stays as it was, and yet the world does not become less beautiful. For a few brilliant weeks, it becomes more so.

That may be what I love most: autumn makes attention feel natural. It asks us to look up, to gather close, and to notice the ordinary world while it is changing in front of us.

A recipe for the turning season

The idea came from the same issue of Régal that traveled home with me from France. I love food magazines for this reason: they preserve the everyday appetite of a place, then wait patiently on a shelf until the right season finds them again.

But this recipe does something else that matters to Cadre Nomade. It lets travel continue at home.

A journey does not have to end when the suitcase is unpacked. It can become the way we cook, the ingredients we begin to notice, or the dish that returns years later when the air changes. Sometimes a place comes home as a photograph. Sometimes it comes home as dinner.

Here, sweet roasted squash is folded with ricotta and layered with spinach béchamel, provolone and delicate slices of prosciutto crudo. Sage and rosemary infuse the butter before becoming the final crisp garnish. The result is generous without feeling heavy: familiar lasagna, translated into the colors and flavors of early autumn.

Butternut Squash Lasagna with Prosciutto & Sage

• Serves: 4
• Prep: 35 minutes
• Cook: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

Lasagna

• 9–12 lasagna sheets
• 1 butternut squash
• 120 g thinly sliced Italian prosciutto crudo
• 225 g ricotta
• 110 g provolone, grated
• 20 g butter, for the baking dish
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Spinach béchamel

• 500 ml milk
• 90 g Gouda, grated
• 40 g butter
• 40 g all-purpose flour
• 250 g frozen spinach, thawed and well drained
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 12 sage leaves
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Peel the butternut squash and cut it into cubes. Spread the cubes on a parchment-lined baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast for about 30 minutes, until tender.
3. Meanwhile, thaw the spinach and squeeze out as much excess water as possible.
4. Prepare the béchamel. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the crushed garlic, sage leaves and rosemary sprigs, and cook for 3–4 minutes to infuse the butter.
5. Remove the garlic, sage and rosemary. Reserve the herbs for garnishing.
6. Whisk the flour into the infused butter and cook for about 1 minute.
7. Gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper, then cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened.
8. Stir in the grated Gouda and drained spinach. Remove from the heat.
9. Mash the roasted squash until mostly smooth. Stir in the ricotta and season with salt and pepper.
10. Butter a baking dish and spread a thin layer of spinach béchamel across the bottom.
11. Cover with 3–4 lasagna sheets. Spread one-third of the squash mixture over the pasta, spoon over some béchamel, and sprinkle with grated provolone.
12. Repeat the layers two more times.
13. Arrange the prosciutto slices over the top and bake for 35 minutes.
14. Garnish with the reserved fried sage leaves and rosemary. Serve hot.

Notes from my kitchen

Drain the spinach thoroughly. Too much water will loosen the béchamel and make the layers difficult to serve.

The prosciutto becomes more intense and crisp at the edges as it bakes, so season the other layers with a light hand before tasting the finished dish.

And do not hurry the herbs. A few quiet minutes in warm butter are what carry sage and rosemary through the entire pan.

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Inspired by a recipe discovered in the French food magazine Régal and adapted for my kitchen.