Take a nutty, roasted squash and make it into the best pasta sauce you’ve every had complete with blue cheese and spinach.
Roasting brings out the sweet and nutty flavors of the squash that I absolutely love, and it’s also easy to throw in the oven and forget about for 45 minutes. It doesn’t need much additional work—simply olive oil, salt, and pepper usually do the trick.
There are enough roasted squash recipes on the internet, and so, I decided it’s time to take it a step further—by turning the squash into a creamy, luscious sauce flavored with blue cheese. Because blue cheese makes everything better. That’s basically my life’s motto.
Roasted Acorn Squash and Blue Cheese Pasta
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Take a nutty, roasted squash and make it into the best pasta sauce you’ve every had complete with blue cheese and spinach.
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 1 small acorn squash (halved)
- olive oil
- Kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup whole milk
- 4–6 ounces blue cheese (depending on how strong of a flavor you like)
For the pasta:
- 8 ounces pappardelle pasta
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 large shallots (sliced thin)
- 6 sage leaves (minced)
- 6 ounces baby spinach
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Place squash halves, cut side up, on a baking sheet. Drizzle generously with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake for 40-45 minutes until tender.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and run pasta under cold water to stop cooking. Set aside.
- Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add shallots and cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in sage and cook for additional minute. Lower heat, add spinach and cook until wilted, about 3-5 minutes. Add cooked pasta. Set aside.
- Once squash has finished roasting, scoop out flesh and measure out 1 cup. Transfer 1 cup squash to food processor and add whole milk and blue cheese. Puree until smooth. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. If mixture feels too thick, add additional milk. If too thin, add more squash.
- Pour sauce over pasta and toss to coat. Serve with freshly ground black pepper and additional sage.
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: Italian-Inspired
