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.

But that reminded me of my own carbonara dish that I had yet to post; it was incredibly good and even though I always think of carbonara being a heavy dish, this was so light and flavorful that I regret not making it sooner. It was delicioso! See? Those are my Italian roots showing.

This is slightly less than authentic, but I’m not charging you $25 to eat my not-authentic food, am I? AM I? NO! And you know why? Because nothing I cook ever comes out exactly the same. I can follow the same recipe over and over again, yet inevitably I change something. It’s like my food is as unpredictable as my moods! Hee, sorry husband!

So without further ado, I bring you: Michelle’s Langostino Carbonara!

6 oz spaghetti/linguine/fettuccine
12 oz langostino (or lobster/shrimp/etc)
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 oz of Pecorino Romano, freshly grated
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning, or to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 oz pancetta, diced
1 large carrot, julienned
10 – 12 stalks of asparagus

Preheat oven to 200 F. Once oven is heated, place bowls in there to keep warm. Bring pot of salted water to a boil; add pasta. In a small bowl, whisk together whole eggs, egg yolks, lemon pepper seasoning, and grated cheese. In a medium sized pan, heat olive oil. Once hot, add in diced pancetta and cook until fat renders. Remove pancetta to a a plate lined with paper towels; drain off all but two teaspoons of fat from the pan.

Add in the carrots and asparagus and cook until tender. Add back in the pancetta and heat through. Set aside. Once the pasta is cooked to your preference, reserve 1/3 cup of pasta water and then drain pasta. Add pasta into the pan with the veggie mixture, along with egg mixture and toss to coat. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the reserved water. Serve immediately in warmed bowls.

Again, this is so good. I can’t say enough good things about this incredibly simple dish. Also, please note that when I say “lemon pepper seasoning” I don’t mean the crap that is powdered and bright yellow. I mean the stuff you can buy at Trader Joe’s or any other store worth its salt, that has whole black peppercorns, dried lemon peel and sea salt with a grinder on top. The lemony flavor adds so much to the dish and obviously complements the seafood and asparagus beautifully.

Co-worker 1: mmmmmmmmmm veal.
Co-worker 2: yes yes but which kind of veal?
Co-worker 1: the most tortured kind they got.

This is amusing to me on a couple of levels: a) co-worker 1, up until about two or three months ago, was a vegetarian for years and years and is now some sort of hardcore meat eater, and b) veal makes everyone react like that! Well, maybe not exactly like that, but veal is one of those meats that makes people either kinda squeamish or drool with the thought of the tender, tender meat melting in your mouth if it’s prepared properly. Me, I’m not so much with the veal love, but my husband is – which brings to me to my point [see, you knew I'd get to it eventually]: the stuffed shells I made recently were made completely with veal, instead of my usual go to of a mixture of pork, beef and veal.

In continuing with my bastardization of foods from a variety of countries, I bring to you “Stuffed Shells alla Michelle” [see, because I italicized it, you're supposed to assume that it's in another language]. I’ve been making stuffed shells for years because it’s always a crowd-pleaser and it’s a pretty easy dish. Since this time I made my own sauce to accompany it instead of slopping on some store bought stuff [don't hate], I decided the dish was now worthy of it’s own entry. Plus, wtf, it’s been two weeks? We’re slacking.

Sauce:

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 carrots, peeled and grated finely
1 onion, diced
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1 – 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon kosher salt

The sauce is the easy part, and for some reason, I feel like this is some of the best sauce I’ve made, yet it was so incredibly simple. First cook the diced onions in the olive oil, just until they start to caramelize. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Dump in the tomatoes, and mix to combine. Add in the carrots, to cut the acidity of the tomatoes; depending on how acidic the tomatoes are will determine if you add in the teaspoon of sugar.

Next add in the salt, and then lastly slowly add in the cayenne pepper to your tastes. Now, this is where the husband and I differ [I say that like it's our only difference - ha!]: I like some spice to my food, but he doesn’t. If I had only done a teaspoon of the cayenne, I feel like it would have added some depth of flavor and a bit of a bite. Two teaspoons was a noticeable flavor and one I felt was welcome, given the heaviness of the stuffed shells. Either way, add it slowly and see how you want it to be. You can also omit the cayenne and add in your fresh or dried herb of your choice – basil, thyme, rosemary, etc. It’s a good base that you can build on as you go along.

Stuffed Shells:

1/2 box of large pasta shells
3/4 – 1lb ground meat of choice (veal, in this case)
1/2 – 3/4 cup of ricotta
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the shells according to the package directions. Brown the meat, seasoned with salt and pepper. Drain and cool the shells. Mix the meat with the ricotta, until you have a rich and creamy mixture of the two; adjust seasonings. Stuff about 1.5 tablespoons of meat and ricotta mixture into each shell.

To get the dish ready for baking, you need to cover the bottom of a 7×11 pan with sauce. Lay the shells in the pan open side up and line up evenly. Once all of the shells are in the pan, drizzle more sauce over the top, and finish off with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Cook in an oven pre-heated to 350 for about 35 – 40 minutes.

Thank me later.