Tagliatelle Pasta in Savory Pumpkin Sauce
This pasta recipe brings together the typically sweet pairing of acorn squash and nutmeg with savory garlic confit and salty parmesan cheese. Try pairing with seafood, such as shrimp, scallops, or clams, and a glass of dry white wine.
Yield: 4-6 servings of sauce
Preparation Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Slice acorn squash into quarters, remove seeds. Drizzle squash in olive oil, season with salt and cracked pepper to taste. Place on a baking sheet pan.
Slice garlic bulb transversely, cutting off the top and exposing cloves. Place on a sheet of cooking foil, coat in olive oil, wrap in foil.
Bake squash and garlic until squash is tender and garlic is tender and caramelized. (Approximately 1 hour.)
While squash and garlic are baking, fry sage leaves in ⅔ inch of olive oil. Gently remove the sage from the oil and place the crispy sage leaves on a piece of paper towel to dry.
Once the squash and garlic are cool enough to handle, scoop squash from the skin with a spoon and separate tender garlic cloves from the paper skin. Add them to a blender along with chicken stock. Blend on high until creamy and smooth. While blender is running, slowly add honey, butter, and nutmeg. Taste sauce and make any adjustments to your liking.
Cook your pasta in salted and oiled water.
Heat a portion of the sauce in a sauté pan. Add al dente tagliatelle noodles and a small splash of pasta water to the sauté pan, finishing the noodles in the sauce. Swirl noodles together with a fork or set of tongs and plate.
Finish dish with freshly grated parmesan cheese, fried sage leaves, and additional grated nutmeg to taste.
More About This Recipe
Undercooking the pasta and finishing it in the sauce lets the sauce and noodles marry in texture and flavor. While this recipe is written for tagliatelle noodles, any wide noodle will work well with this sauce. Linguine and pappardelle are good options as well.
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