Chicken Pumpkin and Ricotta Lasagna -- The Soup That Started It All Led Here

October. The leaves are turning and the light is doing that October thing where it goes golden and sideways and makes everything look like a painting you can't afford. I drove to an assessment near Newton — Kevin's hometown, twenty miles east of where the Weber farm used to be — and the route took me through countryside so beautiful it hurt. Orange maples, red oaks, yellow elms, all blazing against a blue sky, and the harvested fields brown and empty and resting.

The farmer I assessed was a third-generation operation, still family-owned, still making it work. His kitchen table had a tablecloth from 1985 and a wife who brought me coffee and a dog who slept under my chair, and for a moment I wasn't the adjuster, I was the farmer's daughter, sitting at a table that could have been ours, in a kitchen that could have been ours, doing the math that might have been ours if the numbers had been different. His numbers were okay. Not great. Okay. I said, "You're going to be alright." He said, "For now." We both knew what "for now" meant. It meant one more year. Maybe.

I made a butternut squash soup this week — my second-year version, improved from last year. Roasted squash, sautéed shallots instead of onion (an upgrade), a splash of apple cider instead of just broth (a revelation), and a drizzle of maple syrup that adds a sweetness that makes the soup taste like fall in liquid form. Kevin had three bowls. Jack said it needed more texture. I asked what kind of texture. He said "soil-like." I told him that's not a food texture. He disagreed.

Halloween planning has begun. Jack wants to be a farmer again. He has been a farmer for Halloween since birth, as far as I can tell, and at this point I think the costume is less of a costume and more of a professional uniform. Noah is building his own costume — something involving LEDs and circuitry that I don't understand but that will either be amazing or electrocute him. Emma wants to be a veterinarian, which requires a lab coat and a stuffed animal and zero hot glue, which makes it the least labor-intensive costume she's ever chosen, and I'm grateful.

The soup was good — Kevin’s three bowls confirmed it — but there’s something about that drive through the October countryside, through all that golden light and those harvested fields, that made me want to cook fall harder, longer, and in layers. This Chicken Pumpkin and Ricotta Lasagna is what came out of that impulse: the same warm, squash-forward sweetness I chased in the soup, but built into something you can cut into squares and feed to a table full of people who disagree about texture. Jack can’t argue with this one. It has plenty of texture — none of it soil-like.

Chicken Pumpkin and Ricotta Lasagna

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 50 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente and drained
• 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded (rotisserie works great)
• 1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin puree
• 1 cup chicken broth, low-sodium
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 15 oz whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Fresh sage leaves for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with olive oil and set aside.
2. Make the pumpkin sauce. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm the olive oil and sauté the minced garlic for about 1 minute until fragrant. Add the pumpkin puree, chicken broth, heavy cream, sage, thyme, and nutmeg. Stir to combine and simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then remove from heat.
3. Mix the ricotta filling. In a medium bowl, stir together the ricotta cheese, egg, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, and a pinch of salt and pepper until smooth and well combined.
4. Layer the lasagna. Spread 1/2 cup of pumpkin sauce on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Lay 3 lasagna noodles over the sauce. Spread half the ricotta mixture over the noodles, then scatter half the shredded chicken evenly on top. Spoon one-third of the remaining pumpkin sauce over the chicken, then sprinkle with 3/4 cup mozzarella. Repeat the layers — noodles, remaining ricotta, remaining chicken, one-third pumpkin sauce, 3/4 cup mozzarella. Finish with the final 3 noodles, the last of the pumpkin sauce, the remaining 1 cup mozzarella, and the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.
5. Bake covered. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
6. Bake uncovered. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15–20 minutes, until the cheese on top is bubbly and beginning to brown at the edges.
7. Rest before serving. Let the lasagna rest for 10 minutes before slicing. This helps the layers hold together. Garnish with fresh sage leaves if desired, and serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 435 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 32g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 560mg