Pasta, Sausage and Spinach with Butternut Sauce

Well, the stay at home mom gig is over. I've gone back to work. In general it's a good thing; I've missed the other identity that you have in the workplace, instead of being a 24-7 mom.  Although, I have to admit the 24-7 mom thing is a wonderful luxury to experience. Anyway, this why you haven't heard much from me lately and I am sure the postings will continue to be few and far between. But I love writing this blog, plus when combined with the power Pinterest, it's a great way for me to record and save my favorite recipes, so I plan to keep it hobbling along.  My guess is it will get more focused on meals for busy moms.

This recipe isn't necessarily a quick get it on the table in twenty minutes kind of thing, but it's not far from it. So I think it will qualify, plus it's got good veggies for the kids. In fact, it passed the kid test with my picky eater, who would not touch a chunk of butternut squash if her life depended upon it.

So I had this butternut squash sitting around; it came in my CSA box a week or so back and I was feeling unenthused. What do you do with a butternut squash?  I have to admit I am not very creative with it.  I usually peel it, cut in cubes, drizzle on some olive, season with salt and pepper and roast it.  Boring. I was wasting some of the little precious free time I have surfing on Pinterest, and a pin of SkinnyTaste.com's Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage and Baby Spinach caught my eye. I put it on the menu for upcoming week.

This is really a review of the recipe, because except for a few very minor changes that fit my taste, I did nothing to change this recipe.  It's really simple, fairly quick and quite tasty. I will be making it or a version of it again.

Pasta, Sausage and Spinach with Butternut Sauce
(Adapted from SkinnyTaste.com's Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage and Baby Spinach)

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes

6 ounce package of hot Italian sausage links

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 lb orecchietti pasta

2 shallots, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

¼ teaspoon ground sage

2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cook the butternut squash until soft in a large pot of salted, boiling water. Using a slotted spoon, remove the squash and put it in a blender, let it cool a bit, then puree it.

Reheat the squash water to boiling and cook the pasta until done. Before draining the pasta reserve a cup or more of the water for the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a deep non stick skillet over medium high heat, open the sausage links and crumble the pieces into the pan.  Cook until the sausage is done. Then remove it from the pan. In the same pan on medium low, heat the olive oil and saute the shallots until soft. Add the garlic and cook a minute longer.  Add the squash puree, sage, 1 cup of the reserved water, the cooked sausage and spinach.  Stir to combine the ingredients. Add the pasta and parmesan cheese, stir again, adding more reserved water if needed.  Season with salt and pepper.