I had a really fabulous soup at lunch this week and now I can't stop thinking about squash. (The lunch was with my agent, so maybe this should go under "book news" too?) We are definitely getting into squash season, and of course acorn or butternut varieties lend themselves really well to soup. This one had a little coconut foam on top, but that wasn't what I liked about it. There was, I think, a slight truffling. And there are three ways to get me to eat and love anything:
both.
Seriously, if you breaded and deep-fried it and drizzled it with truffle oil, I would eat a tire.
So with squash on the brain I bought a butternut and a couple of delicata. The delicata I will probably stuff. But the butternut, ah, the butternut.
There's a dish we used to get at Dino, an Italian restaurant in DC, that combined roasted butternut squash with pasta and ricotta. It's been so long since we had it there that I can't quite remember what the original had in it -- was it spiral pasta or noodles? were there walnuts? garlic instead of shallots? -- but I can remember the at-home adaptation, and it sure is a keeper.
No real recipe. Just some steps.
Slice a couple of shallots, and saute them in a large pan with a little butter over medium heat. They will crisp up and get brown, almost like a softer, fancier version of the Durkee fried onions. Set these aside for later use. While they're browning, put your pasta water on to boil.
Peel the top half of a butternut squash, and cut it into little cubes. (Usually I am not a fussy cook, but in this case I like to keep the cubes square, so I save the round part of the squash to roast and eat later. Just scoop the seeds out and pop it in the oven. Wow, that was a long digression.) Saute the cubes in the same pan you used for the shallots. Add olive oil and/or butter before the squash so it doesn't burn. Cook until soft.
By now your water should be boiling, so toss in the pasta. Shorter shapes are usually better: gemelli, mini-penne, or my personal favorite because of the name, strozzapretti ("strangle the priest".)
Deglaze the squash pan with a little liquid, less than a quarter-cup. Vermouth, white wine, water, or chicken broth all work fine. I tried beer once and it made the sauce too bitter, but this will depend on your beer, so experiment if you like. You're not trying to make a liquid sauce, just getting the browned flavor bits off the bottom of the pan. Once that's done, turn the heat off.
Mix ricotta with either truffle paste or truffle oil. If you don't want to get a bowl dirty just for this, you can also spoon the ricotta straight from the container onto the pasta and drizzle the truffle oil over the finished plate. Just make sure the ricotta is room-temperature before you use it. Hot pasta and cold cheese don't mix all that well.
When your pasta is ready, drain and butter it. Then put together your individual servings. Pasta goes on the plate, followed by squash. Throw on a dollop of ricotta, followed by crispy shallots and, if desired, walnuts.
Way easier than a filled pasta, and quite pretty, I think.
(This one uses campanille for the pasta, which is an excellent choice if you can find it.)
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