Creamy Pumpkin Lasagna

I recently bought a can of pumpkin. (Yes, I bought the canned kind instead of pureeing my own - an advantage of living in America - a can of pumpkin is no longer crazy expensive!)  Anyway, I only used a little bit of it for a recipe and had most of the can remaining just sitting in the fridge.  Now Pesach is coming soon and I also had a box of whole wheat lasagna noodles sitting in the pantry.  One of my favorite treats to order at a restaurant is pumpkin ravioli with a cream sauce.  One of the disadvantages to no longer living in Jerusalem is that I can no longer go to a restaurant and order such a thing. But, since I had pumpkin and lasagna noodles, I figured I might be able to make a close second to ravioli by combing these two things so I googled "pumpkin lasagna" and happily discovered that is was not a crazy idea after all!  I read a bunch of recipes and saw that they all said basically the same thing for main ingredients - pumpkin, lasagna, ricotta, and nutmeg.  I'm not going to link back to anyone specific on this one because I really just took the basic ingredients everyone suggested, added a couple ideas of my own and hoped for the best.  I was pleased with the results and am happily eating leftovers. :)

Here we go:
-1 large can pumpkin puree or make your own - you want about 2 lbs of puree.  Added some water to the pumpkin to stretch it a little farther and it still tasted great - just don't thin it too much!
-1/4 tsp nutmeg

-1 tsp vanilla

-Parsley flakes

-2 C Ricotta cheese (I used skim.)
-1 egg

-1/2 C butter or margarin

-2-4 tbsp cream cheese

-2 C heavy cream

-3 C shredded cheese, divided (I used mozarella)

salt, pepper, & granulated garlic to taste

-1 box of lasagna noodles prepared according to package direction (or make your own if you have the time :) )

-1 onion, thinly sliced

-Ground sage

-Nutritional yeast

Start by mixing the nutmeg and vanilla into your pumpkin.  Sprinkle some dried parsley in and stir (I just poured, I didn't measure, but I would say to use about 2 tsp or so), and set aside.  Then mix the egg into the ricotta, season to taste with salt & pepper, and set aside.  (If I were in Israel, I would skip the egg and just use g'veena levana.)

Next we need to make an alfredo sauce.  I use a recipe I found a while ago by looking on Google for Olive Garden recipes.  I can't find the same link I once had, but several people have the same recipe posted for it:

Start by melting your butter or margarine in a saucepan.  When it's melted, add the cream cheese.  (This last time I didn't realize that I had no cream cheese, but I had bought Philadelphia Garlic and Herb cooking cream which turned out to be a cream cheese consistency so I just used 2 Tbsp of that.)  Once the cream cheese is melted add the heavy cream and stir.  (I used the rest of the cooking cream plus enough half & half to equal 2 C - again, it's what I had on hand).  Simmer for 15-20 minutes and then remove from heat.  Stir in 2/3 C shredded cheese (if you have parmesan, that is what you are "supposed" to use, but as I said I used mozarella and it was just fine.  When we were living in Israel, I always just used the cheapest Kosher block cheese I could find.)  Season to taste with salt, pepper, and lots of granulated garlic.

Pour half of the alfredo sauce into the bottom of a 9x13" pan and spread around to cover the bottom.  Cover the sauce with a layer of lasagna noodles.  Cover the noodles with a layer of ricotta and some onion slices.  Then add more noodles, cover with a layer of pumpkin, more noodles, and repeat with ricotta and pumpkin until you have used everything up adding in onions whenever you feel like it.  On top of the final layer of noodles pour the rest of the alfredo sauce.  Sprinkle 1-2 Tbsp of the nutritional yeast on top and over that sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese.  Add a small sprinkling of ground sage on top of the cheese.  

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes until cheese is browned.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before slicing.  Season to taste with parmesan cheese, freshly ground black pepper and a sprinkling of salt before serving.  Enjoy!!