Pumpkin Lasagne for you

It's a good thing to eat seasonally but inevitably there will be a glut of one kind of vegetable or fruit and at the end of two weeks you are ready to vow that you will never eat it again.  It is pretty hard to escape the pumpkin at this time of year. That and cabbage.  Last week I headed East and made a Pumpkin lakhsa. Next week I'm planning to make Pumpkin and Ginger cupcakes but this week we ate pumpkin Italian style. I'm sure the Italians would be horrified at this deviation from the original version, but to the Italians credit the lasagne is a very versatile dish. You can make as many variations of it as there are cheeses in France. (That's a lot in case you were wondering!) 
I was talking with my girlfriends last night and not surprisingly the conversation turned to food. One of them confessed that lasagne was her comfort food and begged for the recipe.  So here it is, just for you Helene.



Pumpkin and Leek Lasagne
800g pumpkin
2 cloves of garlic
4 leeks
200g bacon
1 tsp fresh thyme
250g ricotta
300ml cream or milk
nutmeg
1 x 400g tin of tomatoes
1 onion
2 tablespoons tomato concentrate
400 ml chicken stock
2 bay leaves
Lasagne Pasta sheets (I use dried pasta sheets)
50 g Parmesan cheese


Start with your tomato sauce so that it can reduce while you prepare the pumpkin and leeks. 
Finely chop the onion. Fry gently in a saucepan without colouring until soft. 
Add the tin of tomatoes, the tomato concentrate, chicken stock and bay leaves. Leave to simmer gently while you cook the leeks.
Finely slice the whites of the leeks. Heat a small knob of butter in a fry pan and once melted add the leeks. 
Keep the heat low. The idea is to slowly cook the leeks without colouring so they sweeten and melt together. 
After 5 minutes add the bacon, cut into small pieces, and thyme and cook together with the leeks for 10 - 15 mins. Keep an eye on the heat and make sure it's not too hot. They are cooked when they are soft.
While the leeks are cooking peel the pumpkin. Cut into 3cm cubes. Cook the pumpkin in the microwave until soft (mine takes around 10-12 mins) or steam in a saucepan. 
Once lovely and soft add two crushed cloves of garlic and mash together to form a golden puree.
To make the white sauce, simply mix the ricotta and cream together. Season with a couple of grating of fresh nutmeg. 
Check your tomato sauce. It should be well seasoned and still quite liquid.  Mash the tomatoes with a spoon against the side of the saucepan to create a chunky consistancy. It's now time to assemble the lasagne.
Take your lasgane dish and cover the bottom with one quarter of a cup of tomato sauce. 
Place one layer of lasagne pasta over the top. 
Spread all the pumpkin puree over the pasta and pour over one third of the tomato sauce. 
Pour over one third of the white sauce. 
Add another layer of pasta and this time cover with the leek filling.  Repeat with the tomato sauce and white sauce. 
Cover with a final layer of pasta and the last of the tomato sauce and lastly the white sauce. 
Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  Cook in the oven at 180°C for 30 - 40 mins.