Roasted Butternut Squash Pasta

This recipe comes from Cuisine at Home magazine, 30-Minute Comfort Meals edition. Tonight we take the delicious fall butternut squash to pair it with some fresh sage, tangy balsamic vinegar, punchy garlic and create this healthy meal in under 30 minutes!

This recipe yields 4 servings with 540 calories, 36g gat, 49mg cholesterol, 45g carbs, 5g fiber and 2g protein per serving.

Grocery List:

• 2 cups butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• Cinnamon
• Brown Sugar
• Allspice
  
• 8 oz. thickly sliced bacon, diced
• 8 oz. whole wheat pasta
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 tbsp. thinly sliced fresh sage
• Balsamic vinegar

Start by preheating your oven to 425 degrees. I bought my squash pre-cut from Whole Foods so that process was already taken care of.


Take your squash chunks and toss them with the oil, vinegar, pinch of brown sugar, pinch of allspice, pinch of cinnamon. Cover a baking sheet with foil (to aid in easy clean up), add squash and roast until tender - about 15 minutes. This keeps the nutrients of the squash locked in so you get the as much as you can of the nutritional value, while bringing the natural flavors out in the squash. Keep the leftover oil and vinegar mix in the bowl, set aside for later use.


As your squash is roasting, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water. Drain pasta reserving 1/2-1 cup cooking water and set aside.


Saute your bacon on medium heat until crisp, about 15 minutes. Transfer bacon to a paper-towel lined plate and discard drippings. Add garlic to same pan and saute for about 1 minute.


Add the roasted squash, drained pasta and bacon to the garlic in the large pan, tossing to combine and heat through. Add pasta water 1/4 cup at a time (I ended up only using about 1/2 cup) to help loosely coat the pasta.



Take off the heat and toss pasta in the mixing bowl with leftover vinegar and oil, add Parmesan and sage. Serve it up in bowls and enjoy!