Roast pumpkin with the skin on. When it's cool enough to handle, scoop out flesh with a spoon. Put in a food processor with a bit of cream, a handful of grated parmesan, some chopped fresh basil (or other herb) and some salt and pepper. Blend till just smooth, not sloppy.
OR: Peel a pumpkin and cut into 1 cm slices. Toss the slices in a baking dish with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast at 180C for 30 minutes. Use the slices as a lasagne layer (e.g.this recipe).

De-stem the leaves, wash, and cook with just the water clinging to the leaves. This only takes a few minutes. Squeeze the moisture out of the leaves. Then either spread the leaves out flat again and use that way, or chop them. Spinach is good in a layer with bechamel sauce. (You can also use silverbeet but spinach is nicer.)

Used in lots of different lasagne recipes. Alastair Little's recipe or my recipe.

Fry a chopped onion in butter until it softens. Add some chopped mushrooms and fry until they're slightly browned. Add some chopped sun-dried tomatoes, chopped fresh rosemary and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Fry for another couple of minutes.

See Barb's recipe.

The easiest tomato sauce is just a can of chopped tomatoes, cooked with some garlic and onion, plus fresh or dried herbs, salt and pepper, and perhaps a litle tomato paste. For a chunkier version, add fried diced eggplant, capsicum, zucchini, mushrooms, olives, capers, whatever you like. If, but only if, you can get some good, really ripe, preferably roma tomatoes, you can use fresh tomatoes for a different flavour.

Ricotta is nice by itself, but you can also mix it with parmesan, nutmeg, chopped spinach or silverbeet, roasted pine nuts, semi- or sun-dried tomatoes, roasted capsicum, or any combination of these. I've made a really nice lasagne that alternates layers of ricotta, parmesan, nutmeg and spinach with a chunky tomato and vegetable sauce (see above).

If you're using a big eggplant, slice finely into rounds. If using baby eggplants, slice finely lengthways. Brush with oil and herbs, and roast under the grill until brown, then turn and brown the other side. If, like mine, your grill doesn't work, you can do a pretty similar thing in the oven; just lay the slices on lined trays and cook at 180C till browned. You can also do this with slices of zucchini.

Halve capsicums lengthwise and remove stem, seeds and membranes. If you're using a grill, put the capsicums under it skin side up and grill until the skin blackens and blisters (don't be afraid of burning them, the blacker they are the easier they are to peel). If you're using an oven, put them skin side up on trays and roast at 200C until the same thing happens. When they're all nice and black, take them out of the grill/oven and put them straight into a plastic or paper bag to cool (the steamy atmosphere makes peeling them easier). When they're cool, peel the skins off and cut the flesh into strips or use as is.

These are millions of cheeses you can put in lasagne. Blue cheese, smoked cheese, mascarpone..... Experiment.

If you don't want a traditional bechamel you could make flavoured creamy sauces:
1. Cook some chopped tomatoes and herbs, then put in a blender till quite smooth. Cool a little and stir through some cream.
2. Make a pesto , then mix with cream to thin. (Or of course you can just use straight pesto.)
3. Fry mushrooms and herbs in butter until mushrooms are soft and brown. Stir in some cream and cook until correct thickness.

You can make a wild mushroom lasagne - use a range of fresh or dried mushrooms together. You can easily get fresh Swiss brown, shiitake, oyster, wood ear and enoki, and dried porcini and morels. The deli at the Ville at St Lucia sells snap frozen(?) porcini and other wild mushrooms too.