Oh, Butternut Squash. How did we not fall in love until now? Now that the farmer’s market is a distant memory, I cling to my last bits of local produce: potatoes, shallots, onions, and of course, winter squash. The last day of the farmer’s market I stocked up as much as possible on things I knew would last in my pantry and of course the ever-strangely-shaped and slightly intimidating winter squash! After making an amazing butternut squash lasagna from Seriously Delish, I found myself wanting to put butternut squash on everything. Enter butternut squash pasta sauce. This recipe is a conglomeration of 4-5 recipes I found on the internet to give me an idea of how to approach it, and then just using the ingredients I deemed delicious.
This is a fairly loose recipe – I find myself tasting it over and over again until I deem it ready. I also heavily recommend the vegetable stock – I tried a chicken stock and I don’t feel like it added enough depth of flavor. I used Better than Better than Bouillon Vegetable Base – which has no MSG and is primarily made from vegetables. Even better? Make your own vegetable stock! I haven’t made my own yet, but it’s on my list. Currently I have bialy dough rising – priorities here people, priorities.
My other recommendations for this recipe:
- Â really chop the butternut squash into small cubes. They’ll cook faster, and you’ll be able to gauge much easier whether they’re ready to head to the food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, you can definitely use a blender!
- Â Tip for cutting strips of sage: roll a couple of the leaves up together and then slice them into sections – perfect and easy strips!
I put this over shells, orichiette, and also gnocchi. Feel free to sub in any pasta you want. And always, always drop pieces of butternut squash for your dogs, because they will love you forever. And it’s actually good for them. (Until Hami starts wandering around the kitchen crying because he wants more butternut squash and it has all been sauced.)
Ingredients
- 1 small butternut squash, chopped into cubes
- 2 shallots, minced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 cup of vegetable base
- 7 sage leaves cut into strips
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
Instructions
- Heat olive oil on medium until glistening. Add shallots and garlic.
- Add butternuts quash once shallots and garlic color, but do not brown
- Cook for five minutes, then add sage, nutmeg, and vegetable base
- Cook for 8 minutes or until the cubes are soft but still keep their shape
- Add everything to the food processor
- Add the cream and parmesan and process until smooth and cream.
- Taste, add more cream and parmesan if desired.
- Fry 3-4 sage leaves in a bit of oil oil in the pan until dark and crispy to garnish.
