Butternut Squash Pasta with Bacon and Sage Brown Butter

Alana Chernila makes me want to be a better person. When I thumb through her book (and I do, often), I want to grow all my own everything, make every morsel we eat from scratch, and ferment anything that isn’t nailed down. The Homemade Kitchen makes me feel like I can do it, too. I was shopping online for kefir grains within an hour of first opening the book. Preserved lemons? Can do. Seeded bagels? Done and done. Homemade tofu? Okay, maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

But you get the idea. Cherila, who blogs at Eating From the Ground Up when she isn’t growing her own produce and making her own tofu and kefir and living what seems like a pretty idyllic life, does all those things on a regular basis. And still has time to write about them.

The Homemade Kitchen is a lovely way for the rest of us to follow along–and maybe learn to slow our own lives down just a little bit. I have big plans for my fermenting future and am convinced that one day we will eat nothing but pasta I’ve made myself. In the meantime, I console myself with some of the more immediate recipes.

A tagliatelle dish of fresh summer tomatoes and balsamic vinegar was a winner in those waning days of summer. Once the weather cooled and the farmers market offerings did too, I jumped on this butternut squash recipe. I didn’t make the pasta from scratch, but I grew the sage, so there’s that. I’m pretty sure no one noticed anyway. Bacon? Sage brown butter? I feel like a better person already.

–Fran

The browned butter and roasted vegetables make this special, but roasting everything in the oven at once makes it easy to prepare.

–Alana Chernila, The Homemade Kitchen

The Homemade Kitchen
Recipes for Cooking with Pleasure
by Alana Chernila
Photographs by Jennifer May

Clarkson Potter

Butternut Squash Pasta with Bacon and Sage Brown Butter

From: Homemade Kitchen, by Alana Chernila

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash, (1 to 1½ pounds) seeded, peeled, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 medium onion, cut into
½-inch wedges
1½ tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the pasta water
4 ounces sliced bacon
1 pound store-bought bowtie pasta or 1¼ pounds homemade (page 46)
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
10 fresh sage leaves
½ cup finely grated
Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a large bowl, toss the squash and onion with the olive oil and salt. Spread on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast in the upper half of the oven until the squash is tender and the onions are golden, 30 to 35 minutes.
Meanwhile, lay the bacon on another baking sheet. Bake until crispy, about 18 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate.
While the bacon and vegetables cook, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until tender, 7 to 10 minutes for dried, or 2 minutes for fresh. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water, drain and rinse the pasta, and transfer it to a large serving bowl.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly, keeping a close eye on the color of the butter. When the foam subsides and the butter turns slightly brown, add the sage leaves. Remove from heat and as soon as the sage leaves start to curl, transfer them to the plate with the bacon.
Add the squash and onions to the pasta, then pour the butter over the bowl, tossing to coat the pasta and vegetables. Crumble the bacon over the pasta and top with the crispy sage leaves and the cheese. Pour enough pasta water over the cheese to create a light sauce. Finish with a bit more salt and lots of freshly ground pepper.

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Post tags: Alana Chernila, bacon, browned butter, butternut squash, Clarkson Potter, Eating from the Ground Up, pasta, pasta recipes, sage, The Homemade Kitchen