Have you set your menu for the big Thanksgiving meal?

In our family, the host or hostess changes (or rotates) every year. Customarily, the host prepares the turkey and main fixings, but extended family members each contribute one or two dishes.

One year, the biggest surprise was when my baby cousin T (ok, not so “baby” – he had just graduated college!) cooked an elaborate, multi-course gourmet Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, all the fixings, and three pies from scratch. Interestingly, T’s parents had him do a trial run of all the Thanksgivings dishes to avoid any disastrous last-minute holiday mishaps… which meant that one week ahead of schedule, their family of four had committed to eating to an entire Thanksgiving dinner prior to the actual holiday.

Well this year, dinner will be at my Aunt J’s house. She has been quite insistent that I bring a butternut squash lasagna that I had prepared last year as an afterthought. It’s called Butternut Squash and Hazelnut Lasagna.

If you like butternut squash, this lasagna is simply divine. Divine!

Please note: the recipe can be time consuming and frustrating if you try to tackle the entire dish in one day. Instead, prepare the bechamel and squash filling a day or two ahead. The extra effort will be sooo worth it! Trust me.

In the past, I have tweaked the recipe a bit, and here are my changes:
1. I pre-roast diced butternut squash in the oven instead of on the stove top.
2. I add an extra layer of flavor with some roasted garlic that gets stirred into the bechamel sauce and the squash filling. Yum!
3. In place of the mozzarella-parmesan cheese combination in the recipe, I use a generous amount of pre-shredded Italian Three Cheese Blend from Trader Joe’s that consists of mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan cheese.
4. Don’t bother with peeling the skins from the hazelnuts. Too time consuming and unnecessary!
5. If pre-mixing the squash filling ahead of time, I would hold off adding the toasted hazelnuts until immediately before assembling. Last time, I was disappointed to find that the nuts had turned soggy while sitting in the mixture.

On the big day, leisurely assemble the layers in a baking dish (which takes a matter of minutes) and pop the lasagna in the oven to bake. Meanwhile, focus on the important things like playing peek-a-boo with the new baby in the family or enjoying that glass of wine.

This lasagna is elegant, sophisticated, and perfect for a special dinner. Last year, I was inundated (swamped!!) with recipe requests. Aunt J seems to be more excited about the lasagna than the turkey this year (hehe).

Move over turkey! I think you have some competition this year!