Pasta with Butternut Parmesan Sauce

Simply Recipes Food and Cooking Blog



Posted by Elise on Nov 13, 2009

Filed under Pasta, Vegetarian


One of the best things about fall is the abundance of pumpkins and hardy winter squash. Ever wonder why winter squash is called "winter" squash when it first makes its appearance in the fall? Perhaps because if stored in a cool place, they'll last several months, well into winter. Anyway, butternut squash is the queen of winter squashes. The taste is so good, and so consistent, that from what I understand, most "canned pumpkin" that we use to make pumpkin pie is actually made with butternut squash and not pumpkin at all.

The ever fabulous Garrett came over recently with a pint of roasted butternut squash purée and a mission to create a pasta sauce with it. We often find butternut squash inside of ravioli, why not on the outside? It just needed to be thinned a bit with cream, made savory with Parmesan, and brightened with some acid (from lemon juice) and parsley. The result was absolutely delicious; I ate the leftover sauce with a spoon straight out the fridge for days. The way we made it was chunky, with a little crunch from the shallots, but if you wanted it smooth, you could easily purée it some more or pass it through a food mill.

The sauce has the consistency of chunky tomato sauce. If you would like your sauce to be smooth, you can run it through a food mill.
Ingredients

* 1 butternut squash weighing about 2 1/2 pounds
* 4 ounces of bow-tie pasta
* 1 tablespoon of olive oil
* 1/3 cup of chopped shallots
* 1/2 cup of packed, freshly grated Parmesan cheese
* 1/2 cup of heavy cream
* 1/8 teaspoon of grated nutmeg
* 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
* 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
* Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut the butternut squash lengthwise in half* and scoop out the guts and seeds and discard them (or save the seeds and toast them). Pour 1/4 cup of water into a pyrex or ceramic baking dish and place the butternut squash halves cut side down. Bake for 40 minutes or until a fork easily pierces the squash. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Scoop out the squash flesh from the skins and purée with a blender (work in batches or place in a bowl and use a hand blender). Discard the skins.

2 Fill a pot with water and salt (1 tablespoon of salt for every 2 quarts of water). Set over high heat to bring to a hard boil. Add the pasta and cook at a hard boil, uncovered until al dente.

3 While the pasta is cooking, pour the olive oil into a wide skillet on medium heat. Add the shallots and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the butternut squash purée and cook for about a minute, mixing it in with the shallots. Add the cream, a tablespoon at a time, slowly stirring it in to incorporate and to avoid lumps. Stir in the Parmesan. Add the parsley, lemon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Take off heat and cover the pan to keep warm.

4 Check pasta. When ready (al dente) drain and plate. Pour the sauce over the pasta. Garnish with a little extra parsley and Parmesan. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

*Be careful when you cut the squash, winter squash are hard! The best way to do it safely is to slice a bit off of both ends so that you can stand the squash upright without it rolling. Then cut down the middle. See how to cut and peel a butternut squash for visuals.