Last Updated October 10, 2024

It’s fall and not only has the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin arrived, but so have all the gourds!

There are many types but the good news is they are all deliciou and are often quite interchangeable. Unless you’re making spaghetti squash. Then you need spaghetti squash.

In fact today’s recipe is, in a way, spaghetti squash. The principal difference is that instead of the noodles being spaghetti squash the actual spaghetti is covered in a wonderfully flavored, creamy, cheesy, butternut squash sauce! With sage, apple, onion, celery, and basically all of the best autumn flavors in one. Even just the first step of this dish, sautéeing onions in butter, made me so happy and nostalgic. Why? Because onions cooking in butter reminds me of my mom’s stuffing recipe. And it’s the best, obviously.

Making this pasta is quite simple, cooking some veggies on the stove and then blending them at the end. Finish some spaghetti in the sauce, sprinkle with Pecorino Romano cheese and you’ve got yourself a delectably seasonal meal!

I love it so much. In fact, it makes quite a bit of sauce so I am able to stick some in the fridge AND freezer! The quantity of sauce may vary slightly depending on how thick or thin you like your sauce and how exact you are with vegetable ingredients. I tend to be over-generous on portions.

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Recipe adapted from Jake Cohen at the feedfeed

Butternut Squash and Sage Pasta

Serves 4-6 with leftover sauce for another meal

Ingredients:

• 4 Tbsp / 56g butter

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1 1/2 pounds / 675g peeled and chopped butternut squash

• 2-3 stalks celery, chopped

• 1 apple, peeled and chopped

• 1 generous Tbsp of chopped fresh sage

• 3/4 cup / 178g milk

• 1 lb / 500g spaghetti

• 1/2 cup / 50g shredded parmigiano reggiano

• 1/2 cup / 50g shredded fontal or other good melting cheese

• 1/2 cup / 50g shredded pecorino romano, plus more for finishing

• salt and pepper to taste

  
  

Directions:

1. In a large pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add onions, stirring occasionally, until mostly translucent, about 5 minutes.

2. Add squash, celery, apple, and sage; continue to cook until things start to caramelize, about 5 minutes.

3. Add milk. Stir and cover, allowing to cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. The milk may look a bit curdled, this is fine since everything will be blended in the end.

4. While the vegetables are simmering, place a large pot of water over high heat. Just before boiling, generously salt the water. When water is boiling and salt has dissolved, add pasta and cook according to package directions.

5. When vegetables are tender, blend with an immersion blender or transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth. If sauce is too thick to blend easily, thin out with some pasta water or milk. Return to pot and stir in all three cheeses; salt and pepper to taste.

6. When pasta is cooked al dente, drain, reserving 2 cups / 474g of pasta water. Return pasta to pan and toss in desired quantity of sauce. If sauce is too thick, add some reserved pasta water and toss until desired consistency is reached, adding more pasta water as needed.

7. Serve with a generous dusting of pecorino romano.

Jenny’s Notes:

• This recipe makes a generous amount of sauce, so you can choose to refrigerate the leftovers (will probably be enough for another 1 lb / 550g package of pasta) for a few days or stick it in the freezer for a future quick dinner!

• Cooking time for vegetables will depend on how large or small they are chopped, and may need slightly more or less time than stated.

• Feel free to use other kinds of squash or even pumpkin. The other night when I made this the store had run out of Butternut so I selected another Tuscan variety and it was lovely! Keep in mind that different squashes may have different starch levels and may affect how thick or thin the sauce will end up, which you can adjust by adding pasta water at the end.

• Play with the cheeses you use! Parmigiano reggiano, or parmesan, is a wonderfully nutty, aged cheese that you probably already have because it is amazing on almost everything. Fontal is an inexpensive but wonderful melting cheese which I generally have on hand, but you could also use gruyere, gouda, fontina, cheddar, etc. The one I recommend you splurge on would be the Pecorino Romano, which is an aged sheep’s milk cheese. There are many different varieties, those aged in walnut leaves or with truffles, young or aged, easily identified by the word “pecorino” usually followed by it’s defining factor. Pecorino Romano is one of the most exported cheeses from Italy and is aged a minimum of 5 months, giving it a wonderful sharp flavor that pairs so well with our velvety, squashy pasta today.