Today I have one of my absolute favorite recipes for you – Butternut Squash Lasagna! When I finished my first Whole30 and embarked on this paleo journey, I knew I needed to recreate some of the comfort foods I love. Without easy and yummy recipes like this, I would have fallen back into SAD (Standard American Diet) and resorted to pharmaceuticals to manage my PCOS.
I have to be real, I didn’t come up with the idea to create a lasagna using butternut squash! And unfortunately, I can’t find the original recipe to link it here. Over the last two years, I’ve really made it my own and morphed it into something savory and delicious!
And guys, it really is so, so, so easy! You can use a jarred marinara, or if you’re feeling extra motivated, you can make my marinara sauce (and hopefully, the last time you made my marinara recipe you made extras and can just defrost a few mason jars).
The only “prep” is to precook your Italian sausage, and slice your butternut squash into thin wedges. Once you’ve done that, it becomes a process of layering!
First, put a few generous spoonfuls of sauce on the bottom of your 9×13 baking dish.
Then, you’ll layer the butternut squash wedges on top until most of the marinara is covered. It doesn’t have to be perfect! There are a lot of little gaps, and that’s okay!
Next, you’ll layer all of your toppings: half of the Italian sausage, half of the sliced mushrooms, and half of the spinach!
Then you’ll put more marinara sauce on top of that. Then repeat! The rest of the butternut, sausage, mushrooms and spinach. Then put more marinara and layer the last of the butternut on top of that, and finish with the last of the marinara. Be sure to leave a substantial amount of marinara to finish it off. The marinara will help cook the squash – without it you’ll have a raw top layer of butternut!
Then put in the oven for an hour!
I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!
xo Jess
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- 1 medium butternut squash
- 1 batch of my marinara sauce or 48 oz of jarred marinara
- 8 oz of pre-sliced mushrooms
- 3 oz of spinach
- 1.5 - 2 lbs of Italian sausage, casings removed
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cook Italian sausage.
- Peel the butternut squash. Cut the squash in half hot dog style. Scoop out the seeds. Put the cut side down, and slice thinly.
- Pour ¼ of the sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.
- Place one layer of butternut squash evenly on the sauce. Gaps are okay, but try to cover most of the surface.
- Put ½ of the following on top of the butternut: sausage, mushrooms and spinach.
- Layer the next ¼ of marinara sauce on top.
- Place another layer of butternut squash evenly on top.
- Layer the last ½ of the sausage, mushrooms and spinach.
- Place the third ¼ of marinara sauce on top, then the last layer of butternut and then the last ¼ of marinara.
- Put in the oven for one hour.
If you don't have any luck, then try your hand at making your own. It's pretty quick and effortless, and if you make 3 or 4 times the original recipe, you can store it in your freezer for up to six months. If I make this recipe, it probably costs me roughly $5-$7 for one batch (and one batch is the equivalent to two 24 oz jars - so you save more than 50%). Here is my recipe!