Butternut Squash, Sausage & Sage Pasta
I was one of those dreaming about fall the days leading up to the official start of Fall, but don’t blame me I was reacting to all of the wonderful autumn veggies appearing at the Sant’Ambrogio Farmer’s market. I usually make this with what we call zucca gialla, which translates to yellow pumpkin. It’s a different type of pumpkin to the decorative halloween pumpkin we have in the states, this is the winter squash available to us in Italy. Butternut squash is super rare to find in Italy, but as I was strolling the market this one, single, beautiful butternut squash was at my usual veggie stand. I went again the next day and it seemed like no one else bought it…my very Florentine veggie guys declared it must be meant for me and they would write my name on it. They’re such characters, they make shopping so enjoyable and I couldn't disagree with them so I got the squash and used it instead of pumpkin for my pasta making dinner class that day and it was such a dreamy pasta. There was so much squash leftover, that I decided to get to making notes and writing out the recipe to share with you all. Together with pasta it was the perfect fall bite.
Since you’re all so lucky to have access to butternut squash you absolutely MUST make this pasta….did I mention that this is a Fall pasta? Not only that, but the flavors remind me of Thanksgiving stuffing without the stuffing…need i say more?
I’m using fresh tagliatelle, if you don’t make your own or can’t buy it at your local markets I would suggest having this with rigatoni or mezze maniche.
Butternut Squash, Sausage & Sage Ragu
Serves 2
Ingredients:
2 portions of tagliatelle or your favorite pasta
400 grams (3 cups) of Butternut Squash, small dice
2 sausage (classic sausage that goes by sweet sausage in the US)
1 celery stalk, fine dice
½ a blonde onion, sliced
3 TB chopped sage
EVOO
Salt to taste
Method:
Drizzle about a tablespoon of EVOO into a pan and turn on heat to low. Cut the sausage down the middle, and remove the sausage from the casing. Add the sausage to the pan by breaking it up into bite sized pieces by hand. As soon as all the sausage is added to the pan, increase the heat slightly to medium Cook stirring occasionally until the sausage is no longer pink. Move the sausage to the back half of the pan.
Add the celery, onion and sage to the front half and cook, stirring occasionally until the veggies are soft which takes about 15 min. Combine everything together including the sausage. Add the diced butternut squash, stir it all together to marry the flavors together. Add enough water to barely cover the squash and sausage.
Butternut squash, sausage & sage braising in the pan
Increase the heat to bring to a boil, and quickly lower it to a simmer. Simmer until the liquid reduces, the squash is cooked through and creates a nice sauce with the sausage. This takes about 30 minutes.
Season with salt to taste. I add my tagliatelle to cook in boiling water at this point since it just takes a couple of minutes. If you’re using dried pasta you can keep the sauce simmering real low but make sure to stir often so it doesn’t stick. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and reserve some of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the pan with the sausage, stir together and add splashes of the pasta cooking water as needed to marry the sauce to the pasta. You’ll have Fall twirled around your fork in each bite.
Butternut Squash, Sausage & Sage Pasta
