By Dev, CN Manager
Squash is a fall favorite for many of us! Myself included. It’s versatile enough to be used in many delicious recipes like soups, roasts, spiced cakes, and more….. The ‘more’ here, of course, is referring to the pasta that happens to be the subject of this blog post.
Note: I used three different types of squash because they were what I had on hand, and they also were slowly taking over my kitchen counter! But even one type would be sufficient. Same instructions would apply even if pre-cubed butternut squash is what you have readily available.
Ingredients from the outside world:
1-2 Whole Butternut Squash
1 Whole Acorn Squash
1 Whole Delicata Squash
1 Fresh Leek
Ingredients from our shelves:
Preparation:
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
Slice squash lengthwise into halves or quarters. Remove seeds with a spoon.
Rinse and finely slice leeks.
Using a mixture of olive oil with a pinch of salt and Chinese Five Spice added, lightly glaze your sliced squash until the meat of the squash is evenly oiled.
Place open-faced squash onto a baking sheet or other oven safe pan, and roast for roughly 20-25 minutes. Cooking times may vary based on oven heat, but the squash is ready when it’s lightly browned and can be easily pierced with a fork. While the squash is roasting, time to work on our sauce and pasta!
For the pasta, start boiling a medium-sized pot of salted water. Once boiling, add in the dried linguine and cook for roughly 8-10 minutes, until soft.
For the sauce, start by heating a spoonful of olive oil in a pre-warmed skillet over medium heat, and introduce the leeks with a pinch of garlic powder. Sauté until the leeks are lightly brown around the edges (around 6-7 minutes).
The squash should be fully roasted at around this point. Once it’s been removed from the oven, let cool for a few minutes and gently scoop out the cooked squash meat. Add the squash meat directly to your pan of sliced leeks.
Add a splash of broth to your skillet–around ½ cup.
Pour in about 3/4ths of a cup of butternut squash puree and stir until the roasted squash, leeks, broth, and puree are warm and evenly mixed. As your sauce thickens, you can add more broth as needed to maintain its consistency.
Once the linguine has finished cooking, drain and introduce it straight into the skillet. Mix until the linguine is fully coated in your sauce.
Almost done! At this point you can start adding the final ingredients–a dash of rainbow pepper and feta cheese. Mix well over low-to-medium heat until everything is deliciously creamy, and get ready to serve!