Incorporating a fall flare into your home cooked meals can seem like a challenging task. All over Pinterest you’ll find soups and pastas that are using fall ingredients and flavors like pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and more! While using fall flavors is fun, it can be hard to come up with a recipe that’s suitable for picky eaters! That’s when we discovered pumpkin lasagna rollups!
Let’s face it! Kids are most likely not going to fall in love with your roasted butternut squash soup. And, that’s okay! Our pumpkin lasagna rollups are the perfect fall inspired recipe that picky eaters will feel familiar with and totally enjoy!
We were a bit skeptical when toying with the idea of introducing pumpkin into such a classic and well loved recipe. However, you never know until you try it! Now, this is one of our absolute favorite recipes and we’ll definitely be making it when it’s not fall at all! Pumpkin lasagna rollups are the classic lasagna recipe everyone knows and loves paired with a delicious seasonal ingredient that doesn’t alter the flavor beyond recognition. This is such a fantastic, cozy, autumnal meal that your whole family is sure to love!
Ingredients
2tbsp of butter (we typically use unsalted)
3 tbsp of flour
4 cups of milk (any milk is fine, but personally use whole milk)
1 tbsp of minced garlic
1 cup of parmesan cheese (grated or shredded)
¼ tsp of ground nutmeg
2 3/4 tsp of salt
1 ½ cups of pumpkin puree
About 8 slices of bacon
2 cups of shredded mozzarella (more for topping if you prefer the dish extra cheesy)
1 ½ cups of ricotta cheese
1 tsp of red pepper flakes
¼ tsp of pepper
About 10-12 lasagna noodles
1 tsp of sage
Instructions
Begin by melting the butter in a large saucepan on about medium heat.
Try to lift and tilt your pan around so that the butter coats every inch.
Slowly add the flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Gently whisk the flour in with the butter after adding each tablespoon.
After the flour is added, start adding the milk one cup at a time. Continue to whisk the mixture while incorporating the milk.
Add the minced garlic to your mixture and stir in until the sauce is mostly smooth.
Simmer the mixture for about 10-20 minutes. I personally let it simmer while I’m doing another task like hanging the laundry or vacuuming a couple rooms.
Your sauce will be done simmering when it starts to become a creamier texture.
Add the parmesan cheese and stir well.
Now, add the nutmeg and 2 teaspoons of salt.
After all of the seasoning is added and simmered for about 1 minute, take about 1 and ½ cups of the white sauce out of the pan and set it aside in a separate bowl. You’ll be making two different sauces for this recipe, a white and an orange. The white sauce is complete and just needs to be set aside for topping later.
With the rest of the white sauce that is in the saucepan, add the pumpkin puree and continue to simmer on low heat while you stir.
While the pumpkin sauce is simmering, begin cooking the bacon. You can cook the bacon any traditional way that you prefer. You can choose to cook it on the stovetop, in the oven on a baking sheet, or cook it in the microwave.
We typically cook about 8 slices of bacon for this recipe. Depending on your preference of the bacon flavor or protein intake you’d like, you can add more or less.
Your pumpkin sauce should be done simmering after about 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and set the saucepan aside to add for topping later.
Begin to bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add your lasagna noodles and cook based on the directions of the noodle package. The noodles we use typically need to boil for about 10 minutes.
While the noodles are boiling and the bacon is cooking, get a large bowl to begin mixing your cheese filling in.
Add ricotta, mozzarella, red pepper flakes, ¾ tsp of salt, and pepper to your mixing bowl.
Once bacon is done cooking, let it cool and then rough chop it into small bits.
Mix the cheese ingredients together and once well combined, add the chopped bacon to the mixture. Stir all ingredients until combined well.
Oil a casserole baking dish and put a base of the orange pumpkin sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish.
After the lasagna noodles are done boiling, drain them in a strainer and let them cool down a bit.
Once your lasagna noodles are cool, place them flat on a surface like a cutting board or baking sheet.
Use a spoon to start placing the ricotta mixture onto each lasagna noodle. We love lots of cheese, but be sure not to overfill your noodle.
Once the ricotta mixture is spread onto the noodle, roll each noodle up and place seam side down in your baking dish with the pumpkin sauce base.
Continue to add filling and roll up your lasagna noodles until there’s no more cheese mixture or noodles.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Cover each pumpkin lasagna rollup with the remaining pumpkin sauce and the white sauce that you set aside. We just make a stripe pattern alternating between the sauces.
If you’re a cheese lover, add some more shredded or grated mozzarella to the top of your pumpkin lasagna rollups in the casserole dish.
Sprinkle the sage on top of each rollup, basically season it to your own personal taste.
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.
Finally, serve hot out of the oven and enjoy your cozy, fall meal!
This meal is a new comfort food for us! We are absolutely in love with the variety of delicious flavors that aren’t too “out there” that make us scared to try new things.
Pumpkin lasagna rollups would also pair perfectly with homemade cheesy, garlic bread! To learn how to make our own tried and true homemade bread, check out the recipe we’ve been using for years!
We hope you love this recipe as much as we do! Pumpkin lasagna rollups are a definitive 10/10 recipe for us! This would be a great recipe to make if you’re hosting a lot of family this holiday season and want to try something new, but make sure everyone will definitely enjoy it!
