Tonight I invited my Alpha Delta Pi sister Sarah to have dinner and when I asked her what she wanted the only criteria was pasta. With so much wiggle room I wanted to make something I had never made before, and the first thing that came to mind was a recipe I saw while I wasting hours on Pintrest.com. If you have never been on Pintrest and are a foodie or a crafter BEWARE it can be addicting. But Recipe that inspired me was a stuffed butternut squash with sausage, sage, pine-nuts and blue cheese, YUM! So naturally I had to make similar flavors work for my pasta dish, and boy did it work. It is officially my new "go-to" pasta dish it was simple but tasted like something you could order from a high end italian restaurant, and best of all cheap! The most expensive part was the blue cheese and with the richness of the entire dish a mild blue cheese is really all you need. The major changes I made where that I changed the butternut squash from the vessel to the sauce and put a big bowl of crumbled blue cheese in the middle of table for sarah and I to pile on our desired amount. I am starting this new thing to try and cut down on my animal protein intake, specifically at dinner so I also took out the sausage, and honestly I think it was for the better. I did use a little bit of chicken stock but substitute for vegetable stock or even water and this recipe could easily be also a perfect vegetarian dish. All in all I think everyone needs to try this, I am completely obsessed with the recipe, and I am even more excited that I have tons of left overs!
Equipment:
blender or food processor or immersion blender
Ingredients:
Package of Pappardelle or any shape pasta
3 cups Medium size diced Butternut Squash
1 Medium yellow onion diced
4 leaves fresh sage minced
2 garlic cloves minced
1 Tbs Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Milk or 1/4 Heavy Cream
1/4 Cup Toasted Walnuts or Pine nuts
1/2 Water or Stock
2 1/2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 1/2 Tbs Red Pepper Flakes (any amount based on desire of spice)
1 Tsp Turmeric
Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 Degrees and line a Baking sheet with tin foil. Take the uncooked diced butternut squash pieces and toss them in 2 Tbs Olive Oil, 1 Tbs of the Red Pepper Flakes, Salt and pepper and spread the squash on the Baking sheet and cook in the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes (time varies depending on size of squash) or until they are tender to a fork and have a little golden color. Meanwhile in a medium sauce pan add the Butter, when melted add the onion, garlic, turmeric, sage and remaining red pepper flakes saute until translucent. Add the roasted Squash to the sauce pan and cook on low almost mashing the mixture as it combines. When the Squash mixture starts to look like the consistency of mashed potatoes add the stock and stir until mixed together. Cook the pasta as directed on the package and keep a 1/2 cup of the pasta water on reserve. Put as much of the squash mixture into the blender as possible making sure it isn't more than half way full (this may take a few batches), it is VERY IMPORTANT to not seal the top completely while there is a hot mixture being blended, the steam needs to ventilate. While Blending the mixture add the milk or cream and return the blended mixture back into the sauce pan and keep on low until the pasta is done cooking. If the sauce seems to thin you can stir in as much of the starchy pasta liquid until it thickens up. Drain pasta and put it into the serving dish, pour sauce over the pasta, Sprinkle the toasted nuts and cheese and enjoy!
