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Squashy Pasta: A meal at Pastorante inspires an autumn recipe

Screenshot 2016-10-31 10.34.13When I was growing up, we ate lots of pasta.  

Mostly, it was spaghetti or rigatoni, but always with my mother’s red sauce. Many Italians still call this “Sunday gravy,” but, to us, it was just “sauce.” We often had meatballs with the pasta and, just as often, the pork that was cooked in the sauce to flavor it. It was very simple but delicious and always the same.

I wonder what my mother would think now that pasta has become the darling of fine restaurants, cooking shows on television and “gourmet” cookbooks. For just tomato sauce alone, a favorite recipe collection instructs me how to prepare pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil, cherry tomatoes and oven-roasted tomatoes. There is pasta with pesto sauce, green beans and potatoes, as well as with zucchini, peppers and peas, many varieties of mushrooms, artichokes, broccoli rabe and beans. And because pasta with Italian sausage now seems pretty tame, we are seeing sauces with all types of game, such as venison, duck and rabbit. While pasta with seafood has always been a staple in Italian coastal towns, I’m seeing restaurants here offering pasta dishes with octopus, sea urchins and conch. I am never very eager to try these.

One trend I like a lot is preparing pasta dishes that reflect the changing seasons: hearty “hunter-style” pastas in the winter, “primavera” vegetable pastas in the spring and the many uncooked sauces that have become popular in the summer. It is now November, and why save squash and pumpkin for the Thanksgiving table?

I recently had a wonderful pasta dish at Harrisburg’s Pastorante, the unpretentious little restaurant on N. 3rd Street where homemade pasta is served every day. It was fusilli (corkscrew pasta) with mascarpone cheese, butternut squash and chopped hazelnuts. It was a rich dish (certainly fattening), but I couldn’t stop eating it.

I came home and began searching my mountain of Italian cookbooks and cooking magazines for a recipe that might be similar. What I found was “Risotto con la Zucca” or Pumpkin Risotto, which I felt I could easily adapt to pasta with butternut squash. With a few changes and additions, I think it works.

Pasta with Butternut Squash

Ingredients

  • ½ to 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth (plus extra to thin the sauce if needed)
  • 1 pound butternut squash, cut into small cubes (you could use fresh pumpkin as well)
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted sweet butter
  • 1 medium sweet onion, finely chopped
  • 2 ounces bacon or pancetta, chopped
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 pound pasta (penne, fusilli or orecchiette)
  • ½ cup mascarpone cheese (Italian cream cheese)
  • ½ cup chopped toasted hazelnuts (optional)
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

  • In a non-stick skillet, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter until frothy.
  • Add the chopped onion and bacon and sauté until softened and golden in color, about 5 minutes.
  • Add the cubed squash or pumpkin and sauté gently over medium-low heat until it is softened and covered with the onion and bacon.
  • Add the ½ cup broth and cook over low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes until the mixture has reached the consistency of a chunky puree. Add a little more broth if needed and enough salt to your liking.
  • Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water, drain and place in a large bowl.
  • Add ½ cup mascarpone cheese, the squash mixture and the grated Parmesan to the pasta and mix well.  
  • Sprinkle with the chopped toasted hazelnuts if you are using them.

Notes

  • The sauce should be the consistency of chunky applesauce, so, depending on the moisture content of the squash you are using, have extra chicken broth on hand.
  • Mascarpone is the best cheese for this dish. It is available at most grocery stores. If you absolutely cannot find it, try using heavy whipping cream.
  • Try this pasta dish even if you haven’t been fond of squash in your past life! Cooking it this ways results in a wonderful sweetness I think you will like.

Thank you, Pastorante, for the inspiration for this silky and rich pasta dish that is so perfect for fall. You are a Harrisburg treasure.  

Author: Rosemary Ruggieri Baer

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