Dificultad 1/5
I love pesto and butternut squash, and the other day I was thinking that if people make pesto out of tomatoes, why not make it out of butternut squash? I had in my kitchen this butternut squash which is slightly sweetier and nuttier than regular squash or pumpkin, so I decided to try it and it was AMAZING! I fell in love immediately. The result is soft, creamy, sweet, really nice. Use it with your pastas or why not some gnocchi. When making your pasta choice for baking, prefer ones with holes (like penne or shells) or ones with texture like the rigatoni I chose. This way they will catch the sauce 🙂
Portions: 6
Ingredients:
For roasting the butternut squash:
– 350g butternut squash
– 50ml olive oil
For the pesto:
– 3 garlic cloves
– 10g basil leaves
– 30g parmesan cheese (I used Grana Padano), grated
– 30g pine nuts or almonds
– 100ml olive oil
– salt and pepper to taste
-400g rigatoni
– 60g parmesan cheese
Procedure:
1. Cook the squash with olive oil in the oven at 180C for 30min or until it’s fully soft and cooked. Since this pesto only needs about 1/3 of a squash, I cooked all of it and then you can save the rest for a soup or salad. I even toasted the seeds to peel them later and eat them. What you see in the picture to the right is what corresponds to the pesto.
2. Put the squash (once cooled down) in the blender with the rest of the ingredients. In the case of the garlic, I do like to chop it small anyway because if the blade doesn’t catch it right you might end up with an undigestible piece in your pesto.
3. Cook the pasta in salty water according to the cooking instructions in the package until it’s completely cooked. Then get rid of the water and mix the pesto with the pasta in an oven safe dish. Sprinkle the extra parmesan on top and bake in the oven at 180C until the cheese melts.
This dish is really godly. I loved it as soon as I tasted it, nice and warm, slightly set from the butternut squash, the nice taste of basil and lots of parm. So yummy! Comment below what you think 🙂
