Saturday, October 24, 2009

Oh my Lord, Squash is Good!

As Tyler and I prepare for our wedding, we have realized that food is an important aspect of "the party". We have been interviewing caterers and toyed with different ideas about what we want to serve. In the end, we REALLY want to use food from our own garden so we are working on all that and we found a caterer we like who knows about food and is excited to use our food. Good food.
When we met with this particular caterer she told us about this pasta they make with butternut squash. It sounded mouth watering delicious to me and so of course I went home and looked for a recipe. Turns out, I found one.
I made this last night for dinner as an experiment and it turned out to be my favorite thing I have made in awhile. Granted, I don't cook with butter and cream that often and how can that not taste mmm mmm good?

Creamy Squash Pasta

INGREDIENTS:

*adapted from kcra.com
- 2 medium squash (I used delicata and some other thing I picked up), about 2 pounds
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/2c finely minced shallots
- 1 1/2c heavy cream
- 1/2c veggie (or chicken) broth
- Salt to taste
- 1/4t freshly grated nutmeg
- pasta
- freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

METHOD:
*please note you want to do these in this order because the sauce does need time to cool down and thicken so this recipe is set up to allow for that*
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Peel the squash then cut, discard the seeds and slice into 1 inch cubes.
3. Place squash on a sheet pan and toss with oil until covered.
4. Bake until pieces are lightly golden and soft-about 20 minutes.
5. Cool and transfer to a bowl.
6. Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
7. When the butter begins to foam add the shallots and stir until lightly golden and soft.
8. Add the cream and broth, season with salt and nutmeg and simmer until sauce just begins to thicken, three to four minutes.
9. Add the squash and stir for a minute or two.
10. Turn the heat off as you are cooking the pasta.
11. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and the pasta.
12. When cooked, drain pasta.
13. Spoon pasta on plate and top with sauce and cheese and salt to taste.

Makes three generous servings