Everybody loves this cozy butternut squash pasta! It’s lined in a creamy sauce blended with garlic, spices, and goat cheese. It’s easy to whip up and one among our favourite simple fall dinner concepts!
Why we love this recipe
Say hiya to our new favourite strategy to eat squash: butternut squash pasta! Squash in pasta? This recipe is type of like mac and cheese, however with a little bit of this vivid orange fall vegetable thrown in.
Puree that orange squash right into a creamy sauce with garlic, spices, and goat cheese. It’s savory with a candy undertone, perfect for overlaying chewy rigatoni pasta. Everybody in our home completely loves it! Add a fast veggie like a fall salad, sauteed broccoli or Brussels sprouts to make it a meal.
Ingredient notes for butternut squash pasta
The elements on this simple butternut squash pasta are easy. The squash carries a variety of taste and coloration for the sauce itself! Right here’s what’s in it:
- Butternut squash: The most effective right here is an in season, ripe butternut squash. You may also substitute frozen, you simply may have so as to add a bit extra broth.
- Olive oil and vegetable broth: These are used for sauteing and simmering the squash.
- Garlic: Use solely contemporary garlic right here; jarred garlic can style acidic and bitter.
- Chili powder and nutmeg: These spices add complexity.
- Goat cheese (chevre): Recent goat cheese provides a creamy physique to the sauce: it’s the key ingredient that provides large savory taste!
One of the simplest ways to chop butternut squash
Butternut squash will be irritating and time consuming to chop, however is value it in the long run for this pasta recipe! Listed here are the essential steps we use (or watch Find out how to Reduce Butternut Squash):
- Reduce off the neck and peel it: Utilizing a big chef’s knife, reduce off the neck of the butternut squash proper the place it meets the bottom. Reduce off the highest, then use a serrated peeler to peel off the pores and skin.
- Take away the seeds: Slice the bottom in half, and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds.
- Reduce the neck into cubes: Reduce a flat edge on the facet of the neck, to make use of as a base. Reduce the neck into roughly 1/4″ slices. Reduce the slices into strips, then flip the strips and chop them crosswise to create cubes.
- Peel and reduce the bottom into cubes: Peel the bottom. Slice off the tip of the bottom and slice it into roughly 1/4″ slices. Then chop the slices crosswise to create cubes.
Tip: Use a squash peeler! It’s serrated, which makes it simpler than a traditional vegetable peeler. Right here’s the serrated vegetable peeler we use.
Recent vs frozen butternut squash
Wish to shortcut the chopping for this butternut squash pasta? You should utilize frozen squash as a substitute of contemporary!
- Frozen squash saves 10 minutes in prep time. It makes this recipe a breeze, cooking up in about half-hour.
- You could want so as to add extra broth to make the creamy sauce. The power of the sauce to mix will depend on the freshness of the squash and whether or not it’s contemporary or frozen. So, add further splashes of broth till the puree blends right into a creamy sauce. Then add the goat cheese and mix once more.
What to serve with butternut squash pasta
And that’s it: a creamy, wholesome butternut squash pasta stuffed with vitamins and a complete crowd pleaser! Our son Larson may be very into this one (he calls it “mac and cheese”). Whereas we’re not the kind of folks to secretly conceal greens, we take pleasure in that this will get him to eat his veggies.
To make it right into a meal, listed here are a number of simple facet dishes that pair nicely with butternut squash pasta:
Extra butternut squash recipes
Alex and I are large squash followers! We used to skip it in favor of candy potatoes as a result of they had been a lot simpler to organize. However right this moment, recipes like this butternut squash pasta usually seem in our fall and winter repertoire. Listed here are a number of extra favourite butternut squash recipes:
Dietary notes
This butternut squash pasta recipe is vegetarian. For gluten-free, use gluten-free or legume pasta.
Description
Everybody will love this cozy butternut squash pasta! It’s lined in a creamy sauce blended with garlic, spices, and goat cheese.
- 1 pound rigatoni or penne pasta (or gluten-free pasta)
- 4 cups diced butternut squash (1 small) or frozen
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ½ cups vegetable broth, plus extra for mixing
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly floor black pepper
- 2 ounces goat cheese
- Grated Parmesan cheese, for the garnish
- Finely chopped contemporary Italian parsley, for the garnish
- Deliver a big pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the pasta till it’s al dente (begin tasting a couple of minutes earlier than the package deal recommends: you need it to be tender however nonetheless somewhat agency on the within). When the pasta is finished, drain it and return it to the pot.
- Peel and cube the butternut squash. Mince the garlic.
- In a big skillet, warmth the olive oil over medium-low warmth. Add the butternut squash and saute 5 minutes. Add the garlic for 30 seconds. Add the broth, chili powder, nutmeg, crimson pepper flakes, kosher salt, and a number of other grinds of black pepper. Cowl and convey it to a excessive simmer, effervescent always. Cook dinner for 10 to fifteen minutes till the squash is tender.
- Rigorously switch all of the contents to a blender and mix till creamy, stopping and including further splashes broth as wanted to return to a creamy texture (the precise quantity will range based mostly on the freshness of the squash). Add the goat cheese and mix once more till a creamy sauce varieties.
- Stir the sauce into the pasta. Serve instantly, garnished with grated Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley.
- Class: Essential Dish
- Methodology: Stovetop
- Delicacies: Italian
Final up to date: August 2020