One benefit on being put on a more restrictive diet (no dairy and no tomatoes), is that I discover new food. I personally have always loved a few ways of making pasta dishes that use either dairy or tomatoes. Going off of both of them, has put a damper on Italian food! But, to my pleasant surprise, I have found that there are many Italian recipes that can be made without dairy and tomatoes.
One method I have discovered, is making simple sauces with veggies. The basic method is stir frying or steaming veggies with added flavors, and either mashing, or blending the cooked vegetables to make a simple sauce. I loved the simplicity of that concept! As you know, I like simple food. And this is a great way to get in more veggies. I do miss my tomato sauce, but this is a nice change and I would eat it, even if I could have dairy and tomatoes!
I have made this butternut squash pasta sauce twice now using this method and we like it a lot! While I do still miss the freshly grated cheese on top of these pasta dish, it still is very good without it. I like anything with onions, garlic, and basil in it! I think that next time I make it, I will probably add a few dashes of white wine to it. If you can have dairy, a great way to make this more rich would be to hold back some of the broth, and finish the sauce with some heavy cream at the end. And, of course, all of you dairy people, can sprinkle with cheese to serve (which is how I would serve it if I could…..).
This recipe is so simple, it is easy to change around. Use fresh herbs, different herbs, mix with a tomato sauce, or, just keep it simple, and enjoy the simple, beautiful flavors as is.
I like to use Tinkyada’s Brown rice Pasta. It has a wonderful texture, is easy to cook and is low in phytates. I also served this with homemade sourdough pasta. That was very nice as well. I love how fast this sauce is to make. It’s a great last minute meal.
Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce (Makes enough sauce to go along with 12 ounces of pasta, uncooked)
About a 1 to 1 1/2lb butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, and cubed
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoon basil
salt and pepper
1 cup of chicken broth
A few dashes of white wine (optional)
Grated parmesan cheese to serve, for those who can…
In a large saucepan, heat the oil until hot and add onions. Cook over med-high heat, until the onions are soft and translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two, just until the garlic is releasing it’s flavor, but don’t brown (it can make it bitter). If you are using the white wine, add at this point (cook for about 30 seconds to a minute).
Add the butternut squash, the basil, the chicken broth, and lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover, bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for about ten minutes, until the squash is fork tender.
When this is accomplished, check how much chicken broth is left. You want enough to blend with the squash to make a moist sauce, but not to much, which would make a runny sauce. There are no hard rules here! Play it by ear. If there still seems to be a lot left, you can simmer uncovered to reduce.
Now you can to one of three things. 1- Mash to make a chunky sauce, 2- Put through a food mill to make a slightly chunky, slightly smooth sauce (method of my choice) 3-Put through your blender or food processor to make a smooth sauce. Once that is done….
Salt and pepper to taste, pour over hot pasta, if desired, topped with shredded cheese, and serve!
Simple food. Good food.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
So how does one make sourdough noodles? I’ve made homemade pasta a few times, and I have sourdough starter, but never thought of combing the two
Anne at Heart,
I am still working on the sourdough noodle recipe. But I have a liquid starter that I use instead of water for making it. It has turned out well, but not predictable enough to feel comfortable sharing the recipe yet!
I’ve seen recipes for squash gnocchi, Kimi how about coming up with squash sourdough noodles. What do you think?
Good recipe! Easy to make, and very tasty… I added shredded chicken to the sauce once it was chunked, which made it a little heartier. Definately sending this one out to the family!
it’s been a year since this post. just wondering if you’ve perfected your sourdough noodle recipe…if so, please share
I can’t wait to try this! We are currently tomato and dairy free as well and I’ve been trying to find a good pasta recipe. I’ll be adding this to my meals for next week!
Looks like a great recipe! I too can’t have dairy, but make a cream sauce with butter (that’s ok for me, but you could use fat from chicken or something), flour and rice milk. Because goat’s milk is ok, I still make mac and cheese! It’s really cool.
I wanted to suggest an immersion hand blender for making smooth pasta sauce and soup purees, etc. I just moved back from two years in Portugal. Many do not have a lot of money and hand blenders can be found for about 10E. It’s much easier to keep sauce or soup in the pot and puree it up with an easy to clean hand blender. Much less mess. I found an immersion blender here for $20 and it also came with a whisk attachment. I don’t know what I’d do without my hand blender. I use it almost every day.
Kimi,
I did a search for a butternut squash sauce recipe for pasta and found this. I am going to give it a try – I think I will add a bit of fresh rosemary and sage (instead of basil) in with the onion and garlic because I love those flavors with butternut squash.
I am also going to use spaghetti squash instead of pasta. I can let you know how that ends up!
By the way, my daughter Kelsey, takes piano from Joel in Oregon City.
It turned out great! I used some white wine like you suggested and some half and half at the end. I also toasted some chopped pecans to sprinkle on top and served it with grated parmesan cheese as well.
I will definitely make this again and try it with pasta. I just happened to have this huge spaghetti squash someone gave me from their garden. It was good with the sauce.
Made this tonight…SO DELICIOUS. I had tried a couple of other butternut squash pasta sauce recipes before and always thought they were really good, but this is by far the best. Amazingly flavorful for such a simple recipe… we are making a vegetable lasagna out of this which is currently in the oven and I can’t wait! Thank you!!
I made this tonight and it is very YUMMY! I used fresh basil and sprinkled some cashews on the top instead of parmesan. I served it on a bed of spinach leaves with brown rice pasta. I also left it quite chunky. Very good indeed. Thanks for posting this. I will definitely make it again.
Very good! I made mine with dried sage and dried thyme, mashed it with a potato masher and added a little fat-free half and half at the end and then added the parm cheese and chopped pecans (a good addition. I would have added the white wine if I would have had any. I served it with of all things, collard greens with rice wine vinegar on top. To my utter shock and amazement, my meat-loving husband said he was very impressed, asked if there was any of the sauce left and went back for seconds. He loved it and so did I. Thanks for posting
I have been looking at your older recipes and I found this one and fell in love with it. Hubby also likes plain food and we both love butternut squash. As a sauce, this is genius. Thanks for sharing.