This is filling and delicious with a whole wheat baguette:
450 g bocconcini pasta (or rigatoni)
1 butternut squash (about 2 lb), cut into ½” cubes
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ c Vodka
3 Tbs flour
2 c milk
1 cup light cream
1 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg
100g Pecorino cheese (about ¾ c), grated
½ c fresh breadcrumbs
75g Asiago cheese (about 2/3 c), grated
250g ball Mozzarella cheese, cubed
1½ Tbs fresh sage leaves, chopped
Here’s how you make it. Takes about 1 hour in total and serves 8 comfortably.
Cut up the squash. When you’re done, preheat over to 375F (it takes a while to cut and you don’t want to waste unnecessary energy)
In large pot of salted water, cook pasta for 4 min. Add squash and cook 4 min longer, or until pasta is al dente.
While that’s boiling, add onion and garlic to skillet and cook over med-high heat until fragrant (approx 3 min).
Add vodka and cook 1 min more. Reduce heat.
Sprinkle flour over onion mixture and cook 2 min over low heat, until flour is lightly browned.
Whisk in milk, cream, salt and nutmet. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 min, stirring constantly.
In a small bowl, set aside breadcrumbs and half Pecorino.
Add remaining Pecorino and the Asiago to the skillet. Cook on low for 2-3 min, or until cheeses melt.
Drain pasta and squash. Add to 9×13 baking dish or similar shallow bowl. Add skillet mixture and sage. Mix well. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture and Mozarella cubes evenly over top.
Bake 20 min or until golden brown. Serve immediately but be cautioned that the cheese will be scalding hot.
One of my coworkers saw this recipe in a magazine while waiting for her doctor and wrote it out on the back of a gas receipt. I asked her to let me know how it turned out and she did better – she printed me out a copy. I’ve never made a cream sauce before but this worked extremely well.
I made this for my parents – we went to the orchid society show at the RBG and it was lovely – it was the first time we’ve used our new Dinning Set and were so excited … hence the pictures. Mom gushed and we both had seconds, however, I found it to be a bit too cheesy and the pasta they suggested is not readily available, so I altered it a bit before sharing with you.
Mom had bought me these placemats and the dishes go so well
Butternut squash is an expensive vegetable!
This is it without skin – it took a while. You can by precut but it costs more
Yummy cheesy pasta
Off topic, butternut squash is not cheap – the beauty in this photo is 1.125 kg cost almost $5 (its even more for the cut up kind on styrofoam)… I was shocked by that but I’ll make it again for sure.
