Triple S lasagne

Rhubarb and custard, cheese and red wine, chilli and chocolate… Some flavours are just meant to be together, they never fight for attention. And the triple whammy of sausages, squash and sage is a beautiful thing. The squash provides extra meatiness through texture and the sage brings the béchamel sauce front and centre so that overall, the sausage doesn’t steal the show, as it often does. Make this in stages by grilling the sausages and roasting the vegetables the day before.

INGREDIENTS

12 large good-quality sausages

1/2 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and chopped into 3 cm chunks

2 large onions, peeled and chopped to 2 cm pieces

2 tablespoons olive oil

400g tinned chopped tomatoes

100g butter

3 sage leaves, finely chopped

100g plain flour

ground black pepper, to taste

645ml whole or semi-skimmed milk

9 lasagne sheets

50g parmesan, finely grated

METHOD

Grill the sausages until browned and cooked through on all sides; this takes about 15 minutes. Leave them to cool then slice lengthways into three long strips.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C. Put the squash and onion into a roasting tin measuring 26 x 20 cm, 7 cm deep and drizzle with oil. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes until cooked through and browned, then add the tomatoes and roast for another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool a little before mashing a little to break up the squash pieces. Don’t be too thorough though as you don’t want a purée.

Make the béchamel by melting the butter with the sage leaves in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the flour and pepper and whisk until a smooth paste forms. Cook off the flour for 1 minute then turn the heat to low, add a little milk and whisk well. Add some more before whisking again and so on, until all the milk is added and the sauce is thick and smooth. Remove from the heat.

Assemble the lasagne by placing half the sausage slices in the bottom of the roasting tray, covering with half of the squash sauce. Add a layer of lasagne (3 sheets) and then half the béchamel sauce. Cover with another layer of lasagne, followed by the rest of the sausages and the remainder of the squash. Lay over the final sheets of lasagne and cover completely with the remaining béchamel. Sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 35–45 minutes or until a knife slips through the pasta easily. Serve with a green salad.

IDEAS FOR FRESH SAGE

Use a few leaves along with a lemon to stuff a chicken for an aromatic roast. Or fry leaves in butter and serve over cooked pasta with grated cheese for a quick supper. Or just one leaf, finely chopped and added to the cheese biscuits morphs these morsels into a post-dinner offering.

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