Butternut Squash Spaghetti

Who says spaghetti sauce always has to be red? How about orange?

Hmmmm . . . this could be an OU or OSU competition!!!! You'll get that if you are an Okie!

One day, somewhere on the internet, I saw a recipe that combined pasta and butternut squash. I looked and looked for it again, and couldn't find it. I love butternut squash. It never disappoints me.

Today I had the opportunity to have some kitchen time and came up with my own butternut squash and pasta dish.

It really is quite simple to make. I started out by roasting a butternut squash that I got at our farmer's market. I peeled it, seeded it, sliced it, and after roasting it, cut it into 1/2 - 1 inch cubes. I am not sure of the quantity, since I didn't measure, but I would guess the squash was about a pound and a half to two pounds.

In a large saucepan I sauteed a chopped onion, two minced cloves of garlic and two sliced red Anaheim peppers until they were soft. I added salt, pepper and sage to it while it sauteed. Then I added a cup to a cup and a half of water and let it simmer for ten or twenty minutes.

These little orange tomatoes are some of my favorite tomatoes. Sometimes they never make it into a salad because I eat them like they are grapes! I used a cup or so of these, cut in half in this dish. After cutting them in half I put them in a bowl and covered them with a little more than half of the hot squash mixture. It was just enough to warm them up without cooking them and making them mushy.

Using my immersion blender, I pureed the remaining squash mixture, adding water a little at a time until it was the consistency I wanted. There it is, the orange spaghetti sauce!! It would even be a good soup. But today it is spaghetti sauce. While I did this, the spaghetti was cooking.

I rarely eat processed food. So as much as I love this dish, I probably won't make it often. Or if I do I will put it on greens rather than pasta. It was the first time I tried this pasta. It was quite good, and I liked that it was gluten free. I think this sauce would be good on any pasta. Actually, it would be good on anything!

The assembly: fill a shallow bowl with spaghetti, add sauce, and then top it off with the squash mixture. Add salt and pepper and enjoy. 

You may find yourself going back for more!