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Butternut Squash Pasta

April 6, 2011 by 4 Comments

The other night I was at my friend’s house and we were talking about squash [my friends and I talk about food A LOT] and how delicious it is. And that reminded me that I made this really quick and tasty butternut squash pasta over a month ago and hadn’t posted it yet. Kind of makes me wish I listened to my husband’s advice of always having a backlog of blogs ready to post every week. It makes so much sense, and yet.. I still haven’t done it. Nor, to be perfectly honest, will I. For some reason I just like to make things difficult.

Luckily, this recipe is pretty easy and since I had a giant mutant squash, I was able to make both the pasta and an unfortunately dense butternut squash bread as well. Note to self: there actually is a reason to use baking powder. But we’re talking about a success here, not fail bread. The first step to this is to roast a butternut squash until tender, to build the right base for the sauce.

Butternut Squash Puree

1 butternut squash, halved
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix together spices and set aside. Spread softened butter on both halves of the squash and then sprinkle with the spice mixture. Pour water into a 9 x 13 pan and then add the squash, cut side up. Roast for 50 – 60 minutes, or until fork tender. Remove from oven and let cool.

Once the squash is cool enough to be handled, scoop out the insides and add it to your food processor in batches. Puree until smooth. Set aside until ready to make pasta. [Please note awesome cat measuring cups that my friend gave me for Christmas!]

Butternut Squash Pasta

8 oz spaghetti
1.5 cups butternut squash puree
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup reserved pasta water
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon minced rosemary
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a pot of salted water to boiling. Add in pasta and let cook until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1/4 pasta water. In a medium sized pot, heat the butter until just starting to turn foamy. Add in the minced rosemary and cook until fragrant. Add in the milk and let that come up to temperature, stirring frequently to avoid a skin forming on top. Then add in the butternut squash and the cheese. Let that come up to a simmer and cook for a few minutes until combined well; slowly add in some of the reserved pasta water until the sauce is the right consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Combine sauce with the drained pasta and serve immediately.

This is a great way to get more vegetables into your diet. The sauce is silky thanks to the milk and coats the pasta perfectly. The spices in the squash worked really well in flavoring the dish overall. This would also be great with some shrimp or grilled chicken served alongside it.

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Stuffed Butternut Squash

March 7, 2011 by 2 Comments

I’ve recently started getting weekly organic vegetables delivered to our house, courtesy of Boston Organics. Every week, ninjas deposit a box of local, organic vegetables on my front porch. It’s kind of amazing. Besides getting really fresh, delicious produce delivered to me, it’s also forced me to think a bit outside our usual veggie choices of broccoli, asparagus and peppers. It’s been really enjoyable coming up with new ways to use the vegetables I’m getting [as well as sometimes trying to identify them!].

This stuffed butternut squash recipe is something I came up with to use up more of that couscous. It’s not something that’s terribly fast due to having to roast the squash before adding the filling, but if you were to roast it a day ahead of time this would come together pretty easily.

Stuffed Butternut Squash

1 squash
1/2 cup water
1 carrot, diced
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1lb ground turkey
1/2 cup couscous
1 cup chicken stock
2 oz mozzarella, shredded
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Slice the butternut squash in half length wise. Place in a baking pan cut side up with half a cup water in the bottom of the pan. Bake 60 – 65 minutes or until fork tender. While the squash is baking, heat a large pan with the oil. Once the oil is hot, add in the carrots and onions and cook until softened. Add in the turkey and cook until browned. Add in the cumin and nutmeg, then the chicken stock. Bring up to a boil; add in the couscous and cover for 5 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Once the squash is done, add in the turkey couscous mixture and then top with cheese. Bake at 350 for another 15 – 20 minutes, or until the cheese is completely melted and just beginning to turn golden brown. This will be extremely hot so it’s best to let it sit for a few minutes before serving.

This is really good. The sweetness of the squash plays off the warm spices very well while the turkey and couscous stuffing make this hearty and filling. What I would probably do next time is scrape out the insides of the squash and then mix that into the stuffing prior to baking.

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Thanksgiving Tacos!

November 27, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Now, some of you may think I’m a freak, but: I don’t really like turkey. Dark meat is okay, but white meat does absolutely nothing for me. And it’s not even like I’m being served dry, over-cooked turkey; my mother-in-law does a great job at cooking turkey and keeping it moist, but even so I’m still not a fan. So a year or two ago, when faced with a mountain of leftovers and no bread to make a delicious sandwich filled with sides and minimal turkey, I came up with the perfect solution — THANKSGIVING TACOS.

I know we’re a little over the top with our love of tacos at Casa Shenanigans but this is seriously good/genius. It’s also not really a recipe per se, but it’s something we enjoy and I think everyone else should too. There’s no wrong or right way to do this, but basic idea is layering different sides with turkey on a tortilla, then cheese, then heating it up. Like so:

Butternut squash is spread over half of the tortilla, with shredded turkey on top of it. You can really do whatever you’d like on this taco, as long as it is somewhat spreadable. My husband prefers to have turnips and carrots with his, but I prefer the sweeter base to mine. Then, add stuffing (or mashed potatoes) and top with cheese.

You can either heat it up in the microwave or oven/toaster oven until the cheese is nice and melty and everything is heated through. It doesn’t look particularly pretty when it’s done, but it’s good. The only thing that would’ve made mine better was having leftover cranberry sauce in there between the squash and turkey.

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