Categories
Pasta

Lasagna, Love, and Lowell

For last weekend’s Green Goddess reunion, I prepared a recipe that has become a classic in my repertoire — roasted butternut squash lasagna.  For me, a “classic” is a recipe that friends and family request in advance of get-togethers, one I’ve made so many times that I no longer refer to the actual recipe that first inspired it, and often, one that invokes extra special memories.

This recipe hits a home run on all 3 points!

I first made this recipe for a big work-related gathering in February 2001.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made it since, but I can tell you that it was the meal I made in advance of our daughter’s birth and froze, which I then served at our first family dinner with my parents-in-law when KC was 3 days old.  I can tell you that it was one of the many offerings at a combination wedding party, housewarming, and meet-the-new baby weekend that we hosted several weeks later.  And I can tell you that it is one of the recipes that comes to mind whenever the Green Goddesses are gathering and whenever I start to feel the first crisp fall air of the season.

But none of those things are the most memorable thing about this recipe for me.  The most memorable thing about this recipe for me is that it inspired the only marriage proposal I’ve ever received.  Now, you might be thinking that my husband must REALLY like this dish.  But you’d be wrong.  Peter likes this dish, but he’d take a classic lasagna over this one in a heartbeat.  One of the ironies of my life is that the only marriage proposal to which I’ve ever been a party did not involve my husband.  It came from the late Lowell Trede, father of one of my best friends, who was the recipient of a pan of this lasagna that was leftover from that very first gathering where it was served.  That’s right….I sent a pan of lasagna home with Teri, who gave it to her father. The pan came back spotlessly clean and accompanied by an endearing marriage proposal!  Lowell LOVED this lasagna!  And I adored Lowell for his enthusiasm!  But I held out, after promising Lowell more lasagna….and the rest is history! 

Make this lasagna and share it with the people in your life.  Let me know what happens!