Featured Co-Host – Kitchie-Coo

 I remember emailing our next Featured Co-Host because we share a little something in common 🙂 little girls!! Maggie created www.kitchie-coo.com (how cute is that name!) she also has her family scattered all over the world so she takes pride in her site by sharing family, friends and recipes! Though the two loves of her life are her husband Mace and daughter Anna, she also has a love for the kitchen. She was a vegetarian for 15 years and has many yummy baked items, veggie and poultry-laden meals! But don’t fret she still likes to experiment with other meat for her hubby and friends! Let’s give Maggie a warm welcome by visiting her site and trying a recipe or two! Maggie, I will most definitely be back come the fall time to make your Potato Soup in your homemade bread bowls because those look amazing! But for now this momma is going to be trying the Sweet Potato Lasagna with Brown Butter Cream Sauce, I’ve never made brown butter before so I’m daring the challenge!!

CO-HOST UPDATE: When getting in touch with Maggie again to talk over the recipe and plan her Feature I found out that she has been MIA lately……….from morning sickness!! Congrats to Maggie on her new addition to her family! Good-Luck Maggie!

So I chose this recipe because I thought it would be a good Vegetarain one to add to my section for my readers. Well and because I love sweet potatoes, cheese & lasagna so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. I’ve also never made  brown butter before, OMG it tastes awesome and it wasn’t hard to make at all! I was so afraid LOL, you should have seen me Maggie you would have had a nice chuckle to yourself because I didn’t want to burn the butter! I stood their thinking to myself how will I know it’s ready, then I got this awesome “nutty” scent and it slowly started turning brown!!! I timed it exactly the way you directed. (I even set my kitchen timer LOL!) I was quite proud!

I don’t even know if I assembled it correctly because I seemed to be short on sauce (I think I used too much on the initial amount I first put in the pan….but don’t worry, I made do! Great directions Maggie thank you!

Here is how this momma put together Maggie’s recipe:

Ingredients:

8-10 servings

Filling:

3 large sweet potatoes
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup creamy ricotta
1/2 cup parmesan, grated + 1/4 cup for topping
1 1/2 teaspoons ground sage
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg
1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded
Lasagna Noodles

Sauce:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk (I used whole milk)
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Garnish:
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and roughly chopped

What to do:

Make the filling: Preheat oven to 425F.  Scrub the sweet potatoes and then prick them all over with the tines of a fork.  Place on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes, or until a fork inserted in the middle passes easily through.

Allow to cool completely, then cut in half and scoop the middle out into a large bowl. The potatoes were so soft they practically fell out of the skin!!  I mashed it with a fork to so everything would be easier to mix together in the end.

Add all remaining filling ingredients, except 1/4 cup parmesan and mozzarella. I tried to put all the ingredients spaced out so you could see them all!

Stir to thoroughly combine.  Set aside.

Just before assembling the lasagna, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, until barely cooked through (they’ll finish cooking in the oven).  Drain.

Make the Sauce: In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat until brown and the butter has a nutty fragrance, 6-8 minutes.

Watch the butter carefully to avoid burning and add the flour when the butter has just turned brown.

Whisk the butter and flour constantly for one minute, then add the milk.

Whisk the milk constantly over medium heat until the sauce starts to thicken, 7-8 minutes.  When the sauce has thickened, remove from the heat and stir in the salt.

Assemble the lasagna: Set oven temperature to 375F.  Lightly spray the bottom of a 9 x 13″ baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Spread 1/2 cup cream sauce on the bottom of the baking dish.  Layer noodles to cover the bottom of the dish.  Spoon half of the sweet potato filling on top of noodles.

Cover with 1/2 cup sauce.  Repeat with one more noodle, sweet potato, sauce layer and then add another layer of noodles to the top.  Spoon the remaining sauce on top of the noddles then sprinkle with reserved 1/4 cup parmesan and mozzarella.

Bake covered with tin foil for 20 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and bubbly. Add pecans before putting it back in. It toasted them just PERFECT!!! I did have with pecans and have without incase my hubby didn’t like the pecans on it, but I thought it made the dish! I loved the way it tasted because it was toasted and it was the perfect crunch!

Allow to sit for 5 minutes before cutting.

Look at those layers!!!

It was so different, and soooooooo good!!

Don’t forget to go visit Maggie over at Kitchie Coo and see what’s cooking up in her kitchen!