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 in every of our favourite simple fall dinner concepts!
Why we love this recipe
Say howdy to our new favourite option to eat squash: butternut squash pasta! Squash in pasta? This recipe is form of like mac and cheese, however with a little bit of this shiny 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, ultimate 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 quite a lot of taste and shade for the sauce itself! Right here’s what’s in it:
- Butternut squash: The perfect right here is an in season, ripe butternut squash. You may also substitute frozen, you simply might 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 huge savory taste!
One of the simplest ways to chop butternut squash
Butternut squash might be anxious and time consuming to chop, however is value it ultimately for this pasta recipe! Listed below are the essential steps we use (or watch Methods to Lower Butternut Squash):
- Lower off the neck and peel it: Utilizing a big chef’s knife, minimize off the neck of the butternut squash proper the place it meets the bottom. Lower 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.
- Lower the neck into cubes: Lower a flat edge on the aspect of the neck, to make use of as a base. Lower the neck into roughly 1/4″ slices. Lower the slices into strips, then flip the strips and chop them crosswise to create cubes.
- Peel and minimize 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
Need to shortcut the chopping for this butternut squash pasta? You should use frozen squash as an alternative of contemporary!
- Frozen squash saves 10 minutes in prep time. It makes this recipe a breeze, cooking up in about half-hour.
- It’s possible you’ll want so as to add extra broth to make the creamy sauce. The power of the sauce to mix is dependent upon 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 filled with vitamins and a complete crowd pleaser! Our son Larson could be very into this one (he calls it “mac and cheese”). Whereas we’re not the kind of folks to secretly disguise greens, we get pleasure from that this will get him to eat his veggies.
To make it right into a meal, listed here are a number of simple aspect dishes that pair effectively with butternut squash pasta:
Extra butternut squash recipes
Alex and I are huge squash followers! We used to skip it in favor of candy potatoes as a result of they had been a lot simpler to arrange. However immediately, recipes like this butternut squash pasta typically seem in our fall and winter repertoire. Listed below 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 just a little agency on the within). When the pasta is completed, 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 several other grinds of black pepper. Cowl and convey it to a excessive simmer, effervescent continuously. Cook dinner for 10 to fifteen minutes till the squash is tender.
- Fastidiously 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 kinds.
- Stir the sauce into the pasta. Serve instantly, garnished with grated Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley.
- Class: Principal Dish
- Methodology: Stovetop
- Delicacies: Italian
Final up to date: August 2020
