Pumpkin and Apple Sausage Lasagne / Lasagna

Bits of pumpkin. Bits of cheese. Bits of sage.

Prepping for late evenings at work.

Let me start by saying I never really understood what the difference was between lasagnE and lasagnA.  Depending on the recipe and who you ask you get one or the other.  While most recipes I've seen online have the 'A' at the end, my little laptop's spellchecker is much happier with the 'E' ending, giving me a scribbly red line under "lasagnA". Anyway, we all know the internet knows everything; e.g. Where do flies go at night? (under leaves and branches, on twigs and tree trunks, and on the stems of grass and other plants).  Is periwinkle purple or blue? (more blue I'd say, but the experts can't agree on this one).

So naturally I looked up the difference between lasagnE and lasagnA.  I know, dear readers, you are on the edge of your seats.

So without further ago, I shall explain courtesy of grammarist.

Technically in Italian the E ending is the plural and the A ending the singular. The reality is that in English they aren't used that way - and are interchangeable. North American English speakers use lasagnA.  English speakers from outside North America usually use lasagnE. And there you have it.  Exciting right? Now on to the good stuff...

The past few weeks I'd been hankering for that awesome fall flavour combo of pumpkin, sage, and ricotta.  Typically bundled up in little pillows of deliciousness (known as ravioli) I didn't quite fancy the faff of making homemade pasta.  Nor did I want to buy some of the ready made variety (as deluxe and artisanal as some of them may be).

So I put my wee thinking cap on and decided on a lasagne version.  What could be so difficult?  Well, when you know the flavour combination you want to work with, the answer is - not much!

I decided on three main layers in addition to the pasta, a cheesy one, a meaty one and a pumpkiny sauce one.

For the meaty layer, I went with apple pork sausage.  I'd been keen to pick something similar of the chicken sausage variety but London struggles to get chicken sausage into it's everyday grocery stores.  I'm not sure why.  But that and shredded carrots. Hard to find either of these two products.  Ultimately I know where to suss them out but it's a schlep.  Bizarre I think.  But there you have it.

Anyway, I digress.  For the sausage, I sauteed a whole onion in a bit of olive oil until translucent.  I then added 6 the sausages, with casings removed, breaking them up as they cooked.  Once cooked through I set aside.

The cheese layer was also a super easy one.  I mixed 1 large container ricotta, 1.5 cups mozzarella and .5 cup parmesan cheese, along with 1 egg and salt and pepper.  Set aside for assembly.

The pumpkin "sauce" was also quite simple but having not made it before there was a bit trial and error.

In olive oil I sautéed a bunch of diced garlic and about 1/3 cup finely diced sage until soft and fragrant.  I added white wine and stock, about 2/3 cup each until it reduced by about half.  Next I added one can pure pumpkin to the pan and stirred until well combined, adding salt and pepper to taste.  I also added nutmeg and 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt.  The latter ingredient because it was just sat in my fridge and I didn't want it to go to waste as I wasn't sure I'd eat it any other time.

Once I got the flavours nicely balanced I had my lasagne sauce.  It was fantastic and everything I'd hoped for, but as I put the lasagne together (start with the sauce and end with noodles covered in more cheese) I realised, next time - I'd use 2 cups pumpkin and maybe increase the stock to just over 1 cup.

But I now have lots of mini lasagne pieces wrapped up in the freezer for late nights at work or lazy Sunday evenings.  Plenty to get me through until Christmakuahwanzah season.