The texture of the squash breaks down as it cooks to create a smooth, hearty sauce for the pasta in this one-dish meal. The slightly sweet squash contrasts with the sharp Parmesan cheese. Use the grating attachment of a food processor to shred the squash.
Very yummy. It was a fair amount of work shredding the squash, but it is the ultimate in comfort food without any of the guilt. I would make it again!
I really enjoyed this recipe. I added a litle fontina cheese at the end...which I am glad I did. Next time I would make more of the butter/sage/pinenut combo...it made the dish. The labor intensive part of the dish was shredding the squash...so I did twice as much and put the rest in the freezer to use again later. I would also consider adding some pepper flakes to spice it up a bit.
I made this last night and thought it was amazing! Butternut squash is one of my favorite veggies so I'm always looking for new ways to use it. Who would've thought you could make a sauce out of it! The only thing I changed was the pine nuts (didn't have any) so I used chopped walnuts. Loved the sweetness of the squash with the saltiness of the parm. My husband thought it was really different and ate a huge bowl of it! Nice fall dish! I think a small bowl of this would be a great starter for Thanksgiving dinner!
Love, love, love this dish! It is a bit of work, but so worth it!
Excellent pasta dish. It tastes great, and doesn't come off as being too heavy. The contrast of squash to cheese is excellent and the little bit of crunch from the pine nuts really adds a level of texture complexity.
Although this recipe took longer than I realized, it was well worth the wait. Very flavorful! This would make a great fall dish. I used whole wheat rotini pasta. I will be making this again.
Read the reviews that this dish was bland so I made a couple adjustments, and I think this is one of the most amazing pasta dishes! Here's what I did: -- Double the pignoli nuts (oh and do not. I repeat: do not even think about omitting the butter/pignoli/sage ... it makes the dish) -- Added about 1/3 c. of dried mixed wild mushrooms chopped when I added the squash to the pan (make sure you reserve whatever broth is left from soaking them) -- Used reserved mushroom broth and chicken broth instead of water (2.5 c) Also, this didn't necessarily make the dish, but instead of penne I used mezze rigatoni (half rigatoni), which I found caught the sauce and pignoli nuts perfectly. Don't miss out on this pasta dish, definitely worthy of a dinner party.
Absolutely love this dinner especially with leftover breakfast sausage.
