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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Roasted Butternut Squash & Ricotta Rotini

A friend served a dish similar to this at a dinner party recently, and I thought it would be a good way to break out of my recent curry/soup rut. I modified a few recipes I found online, notably this one. Since I'm not Watching my Weight, I went full fat!

My recipe was more like this:

Halve and seed butternut squash; rub with a little olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt, and roast in 400º oven until tender (for mine, around an hour).

Cook 12 ounces of whole wheat rotini in salted water while making a garlic bechamel sauce (4 teaspoons of butter and 4 of flour cooked with 4 minced cloves of garlic [this was a bit too much, actually] to form a roux; add 2 cups soy milk, a dash of nutmeg, and some dried thyme).

Peel and cube squash; toss with drained pasta and sauce. Pour into large casserole, dot generously with ricotta, sprinkle with grated/flaked asiago, and bake in 375º oven until brown and bubbly (about 25 minutes).

I thought it was pretty delicious, though it is heavy on the fiber, so it's not for the faint of digestion. Aside from the cheeses, it's also pretty cheap; it's hard to beat squash (and here, you can buy local even in the warehouse stores!) for nutritional value on the dollar. I rarely go to the trouble of roasting a butternut squash (after all, they can be nuked so easily!), but they are awfully nice that way, and easy if not exactly fast; once roasted, the skin comes right off.

5 comments:

David said...

I'm not going to lie. I don't like squash. Especially Butternut Squash. And it's not one of those things where you never try it and just say you don't like it. I had some for breakfast this morning (on accident. I thought it was apple sauce.)

Way to go with the daily blogging in November. I have a hard time blogging once a month.

Ern said...

Sounds delicious. The butternut squash/bechamel sauce is such a good creamy combination.

Daniel said...

I've had a butternut squash on my table for a few weeks now and this weekend I'll try to turn it in to a pie with one of my pumpkin pie recipes.

I'm wondering if the garlic wouldn't be better served to be included in the oven roasting with the squash, maybe some of the 4 cloves anyway.

dedder

Leah said...

That's exactly what I was going to say David and Daniel! I don't like it either, which is why I have to disguise it when I cook it, using lots of spicy and flavorful things (cayenne, vinegar, etc). And I wondered if roasting the garlic would sweeten it up a bit (the garlic that is).

I like the idea of all that salty cheese on the squash, though.

Secret word: reach

CëRïSë said...

Ahhh, roasting the garlic with the squash is a great idea! Next time...