You’ll taste a Forkful of Fall in every bite with this easy five-ingredient pasta Rigatoni with Butternut Squash and Spicy Sausage recipe from Giada. It’s simple 5 ingredient dish. My daughter Brittany sent this recipe to me. It’s an easy weeknight meal that I’m sure you will love.
This easy pasta is a great meal for this time of year especially if you like butternut squash. The blended flavors from the Italian sausage and the creamy butternut squash taste absolutely delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 lb rigatoni pasta (gluten free pasta is an option too)
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons for finishing
- 1 lb. Italian Sausage (casing removed) I used mild, but you can also go with the spicy
- 1lb. butternut squash cut into small pieces (you can find it already cut up in the produce department)
- 1 ½ cups of water
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
- 2 cups of roughly chopped baby arugula
Directions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add your pasta (cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente). Drain well reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta water.
Next, in a large frying pan heat the 2 tbs. of olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the sausage until cooked breaking up into small pieces with a wooden spoon as you cook. Add the diced squash to the pan.
Add the butternut squash to your frying pan with the sausage, then add the salt, and ½ cup of the pasta water. Continue to cook while submerging the squash in the water to soften (tip- I actually microwaved the butternut squash on high for around 2-3 minutes to soften it up a little and speed up the cooking)
Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the squash is tender and the liquid has reduced by half (about 10 minutes)
Add the cooked pasta and 3/4 a cup of parmesan.
Stir until completely mixed and the pasta is fully coated. Add the chopped arugula and then the 3-remaining tablespoons of olive oil.
If needed add a little more of the reserved pasta water. Cook just until the arugula is wilted. Serve topped with the remaining parmesan cheese.
*I used the pan that I boiled the pasta for the final step of mixing all the ingredients together. I found that this was better since it was larger than my frying pan.
I hope you enjoy this dish, it’s a nice variation from traditional pasta dishes.
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