GET IN MY MOUTH: sage and butternut squash pasta with shrimp

So you may or may not know that I love to cook. And yes, I get asked all of the time when I am going to make a food blog....but guess what? I don't want like 17million blogs (weird, I know). So until I am cooking full time, I think I am going to be putting some of my recipes on here.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a professional, so take my recipes with a grain of salt. I don't promise they'll all be winners. But hopefully I can at least inspire you to get in the kitchen and create something you like to gobble.

This recipe is actually a compilation of my cooking and the genius of Emily (my bat-shit-crazy friend, who has been blogged about here).

(oh and ps Em, I mean bat-shit-crazy in the good way. Not the "oh shit don't answer this phone call' kinda way....you know what I mean).

Em and I have this weird share-the-same-brain thing. And she's an absolutely OUTSTANDING cook. When we're in the kitchen, it reminds me of a team of surgeons.

Emily: "Hey do you think this sauce looks...."
Me: "A little too thick? I was just thinking that..."
Emily: "thin it out with some vegetable broth?"
Me: "get out of my brain."

Most of the best food I've ever made has been with Emily standing right over my shoulder, tag-teaming the entire time. And when I make really delicious food without her, I have been known to save her some just so I can drive it to her house to make her try it.

So - you get it. We're like the same cooking brain.

This dish is a compilation of 1) a sauce that I found and loved, and Emily improved on and 2) a random Tuesday night where we decided to make it up as we went along. And it turned out bomb.com.

Sooo, here you go:


Sage and Butternut Squash Pasta with Shrimp

For the Butternut Sage Sauce (this can be made in advance):

- 1 large butternut squash, or about 3 lbs (if you're buying it precut)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 springs of thyme
- 1/4 cup of flour
- 3 cups of whole milk (cream if you want it even better, or coconut milk if you're going non-dairy)
- 4 oz. goat cheese
- 1 cup (about 2 oz) pecorino cheese (or romano, or parmesan...a good hard cheese)
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
- 1 stick of butter (or coconut spread if you're vegan)**
- 3 to 4 sprigs of sage leaves

**I have never actually made this a vegan dish. I'm sure with a few modifications you could do that easily. Let me know how that goes.

Begin by cooking your squash. If you're using a whole squash, you're going to want to cut it in half length wise, and drizzle it with olive oil. Add the thyme leaves and add the garlic on top of the squash as you roast it (it adds a nice flavor). Roast at 425 degrees for about 50 minutes.

If you're using the precut stuff, you can boil it or roast it, whatever you prefer (although roasting it with the thyme and garlic imparts some bomb flavor).

Once your squash is all nice and roasty, you're going to want to scoop out all of the orange flesh and put it in a bowl (BE CAREFUL THAT SHIT IS HOT). You can throw away the thyme, but add in the roasted garlic cloves (be sure to take off the skins). Without scalding your fingers off mash all that together to make some tasty-goodness. Set aside.

Now, in a sauce pan you're going to make a goat-cheese and sage bechamel sauce. If you don't know what a bechamel sauce is, I'm about to change your life, cause this is the basis for any cream sauce that you're ever going to make.

Since we're making a sage-cream sauce, we're going to start by adding butter to sauce pan over medium high heat. When it starts to get fragrant, add the sage leaves and toast for several minutes until they are crispy. Once the sage is making your kitchen smell amazing (2 - 3 minutes), use a fork and take it out of the pan. Be careful not to burn either the butter or the sage.

Add in your flour, and using a whisk, you're going to want to stir the butter and flour constantly - until the it makes a sort of golden brown smooth paste. This is what is going to make your sauce thick and delicious.  Now, be careful not to burn yourself, but add in your milk gradually, continuing to stir with the whisk. You're going to want to occasionally stir this for the next 15 minutes or so, making sure not to burn the milk, but letting the sauce thicken. You'll know it's thick enough when it can coat the back of the spoon.

Now we're ready for the goat cheese. This is going to add a nice tang to the sauce and give it depth of flavor. Also add in 1/2 of the pecorino cheese, the nutmeg, and some salt and pepper to taste.

Congrats. You have just made the world's best bechamel sauce.

Now we're going to combine it with the butternut squash and garlic mixture to create some delicious saucy goodness. My sauce was a little too thick (it should not be like baby food....it should be more like the consistency of a thick clam chowder). Using the vegetable stock, you can add it in slowly until you have a good consistency.

You can use this sauce for any kind of pasta, and it freezes great too. The night we made this pasta recipe we'd pre-made the sauce, so dinner was ready in a flash.

 For the Rest of the Pasta:

- About 1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms (any kind ya like)
- 1 box of fusilli pasta (or linguini or whatever you like)
- 1 lb of medium sized raw shrimps, devained and cleaned
- Juice from 1/2 a lemon, along with the zest
- 1/2 cup of frozen peas
- Olive Oil

Begin by boiling water and cooking the pasta to your liking. Set aside cooked pasta noodles.

Add some olive oil to a hot pan (about 2 tbsps), and then adding in the sliced mushrooms.  When the mushrooms begin to let out some liquid and soften, add in the shrimp. The best way to not overcook the shrimp is to make sure they are in one layer in the bottom of the pan, and turn them once after several minutes (READ:  TWO OR THREE MINUTES). They should be beginning to pink up, but not completely pink and coiled. If they are, you overdid it and they are going to be like plastic.

So when the shrimps are mostly pink, add in the sage butternut squash sauce (2 cups of it? that sounds about right), and then add in the juice from the lemon, and stir together to coat. At the last minute you want to add in the frozen peas, letting them heat for 1 or 2 minutes while you stir together the sauce.
Finally add in your noodles, and mix everything together.

Voila. The best dinner you've ever made. (Hahhaa, I always want to spell that "waaaa la")

Oh, and last step. If you have a lactose intolerant husband, leave him a note so that he doesn't get a bad case of the farts.

Happy weekend!

-Jenni