One of my go-to dishes has become the pureed vegetable + accent vegetable + pasta dinner. It’s pretty much a sub for macaroni and cheese for my dairy intolerant kid. And she devours it every time.
I usually think of butternut squash as a pain in the neck (scraping out seeds, baking forever, scraping out usable shards, etc), so this recipe was a welcome surprise. It has all the sweet savory elements you’d expect with butternut squash, but is also desceptively easy.
This is a modified version of Epicurious’ Pasta with Butternut Squash and Sage. I had to ixnay the parmesan, so I added some spices to make up for it.
1 yellow onion
2 or so tablespoons olive oil (for cooking)
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into large chunks
3/4 c water
2 tsp sage, chopped
1 pound rotelle pasta (very easy for a toddler to pick up, and all the vegetables get stuck in the wheel spikes)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp sal
Throw the butternut squash chunks into a food processor, chop finely. Cook the onion in olive oil over medium-high heat. When the onion is translucent, add in the chopped butternut squash. Add in the water. Simmer for 25 minutes, until butternut squash is breaking apart and very soft. Add in sage and other spices.
Cook pasta in a pot of boiling water.
Drain pasta, but keep a couple cups of pasta water in a bowl.
Add the butternut squash mixture to the pasta and mix. Add salt/pepper as you see fit. If it’s looking dry, add some of the pasta water and mix.
