You can’t get dinner right all the time. It’s difficult to be creative, sometimes you forget the salmon is cooking while you take a shower, sometimes you read tablespoons when it should have been teaspoons. It happens. But sometimes, just sometimes, you get it really right. This was one of those times.
Last Friday afternoon I was daydreaming about food at work (normal) and what I wanted to make for dinner that night. I remembered seeing a pasta recipe on the cover of my Food Network Magazine that I wanted to try, but didn’t have the magazine with me so I went to the website to find the recipe. The recipe was no where to be found. I was kind of confused, thinking maybe I never saw the recipe at all and was imagining it, so instead I decided to go on my own pasta adventure. I’m pretty happy that I did because this is probably my new favorite comfort pasta for fall and winter.
Orecchiette with Butternut Squash and Kale in a Brown Butter Sage sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Orecchiette
- Rotisserie Chicken – 2 legs, 1 breast shredded (skin removed)
- Small Butternut Squash, cut up
- Leaves from 1/2 bunch of kale, ripped into bite sized pieces
- 1.25 sticks salted butter
- 3 sprigs of sage
- .5 tsp minced garlic
- Parmesan cheese
Steps:
For the Butternut Squash
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
- In the meantime, poke holes around your squash and place in the microwave for 4 minutes. This will soften the skill enough to peel it off
- When the squash is done use a vegetable peeler to take off the skin
- Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds
- Cut the squash into 1/2 inch cubes or triangles
- Line a baking sheet with tin foil, spread the squash out and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until the edges are golden and a fork easily pierces it.
For the pasta
- Boil water for your pasta in a large sauce pan. For two people I made about half the box of pasta, and there was some left over.
- While the water is boiling, prep the kale.
- Wash the kale, remove the stems, and break into bite size pieces
- When the water is boiling, add the orecchiette. It should cook between 9-11 minutes depending on your preference
- When the pasta is finished, scoop it out with a spoon (one of the ones with holes in it to preserve the pasta water)
- Keep the pasta water boiling and add the kale. Let it boil for 5-7 minutes to soften.
- In the meantime, shred the rotisserie chicke
- When the kale is done, drain the water and add the kale to the pasta
For the sauce
- Add the butter, garlic & sage to a large skillet
- Let warm up on medium heat
- When the butter starts to lightly boil and brown at it’s thinnest part, remove from heat
Assemble!
- Add the pasta, butternut squash, kale and chicken together and toss to combine
- Sprinkle 1 tbsp parmesan cheese over the top
- Add the butter sage sauce and mix thoroughly
- Love yourself for the rest of your life for eating this
I wound up finding the recipe for this 2 days later (not on the cover, somewhere deep in the magazine) and it was cool how close my recipe was to the actual recipe by the pros. I’ll just take a second to pat myself on the back.
Enjoy!!
Tablespoons & Teaparties 