Squash Pasta Sauce

Yep, you read that right, a pasta sauce made from squash.. or pumpkin, which is a kind of squash I guess.

I was watching the Rachael Ray show a little while back and was fascinated by a pasta sauce she made from a butternut squash (I think it was butternut, but that could have been from another episode)

It wasn't a long or painstaking process, I made the puree myself, but I'm sure canned would be fine. It's not complicated, and it's not a crazy amount of ingredients.

Squash/pumpkin
heavy cream/half and half/any vegan milk you like really
cheese (parmesan, but I added some feta and the end of a cream cheese packet I had in the fridge)
salt and pepper to taste
onion/shallot and garlic
olive oil
fresh sage
nutmeg

If you want to make the actual puree that's the basis of the sauce, it's really simple. I can't even tell you the weight of the piece I used, it was maybe the size of a medium butternutsquash (but it was a piece of Calabaza).
Cut the squash up, leave the skin on but remove the seeds. Pop it in a pot with about an inch or two of water, skin side up, put the lid on and let it steam. When it's cooked, remove it from the pot, don't burn yourself, maybe wait till it's cool to the touch, you'll be able to scrape the skin from the flesh. Put the pieces of squash into a blender or food processor and blitz, add some milk/cream if you need to. Don't liquify. 

While the squash is cooking, cook your pasta. Let the water come to a boil before adding salt (add it before and it'll ruin your pan) then pasta. Let it cook to ardent (you know, cooked but not all the way soft) and drain. You can reserve a little of the pasta water to add to the sauce, I didn't. I think she used some chicken stock... (Can't remember) I didn't.

Olive oil, garlic, onions and sage, heat in a pan until soft, don't burn the things ok. lol. Now you add the squash puree, and season to taste, dash of nutmeg, cream/milk and cheese gets into the mix here and when everything is combined and smelling good, add the pasta, it'll finish cooking in the sauce.

​Look, you made a meal in no time. :) Eat all the food.

ps: if you really want to be fancy with the spices, fry some sage and crumble it on top, it gets nice and crisp and adds a nice extra texture and flavour on the dish.