Quick and Easy Vegetarian Penne with Butternut Squash and Shiitake

Penne with Roasted Butternut Squash and Shiitake is a quick and easy vegetarian meal that feels totally "meaty". The browned sage butter takes it over the top.

The Inspiration for - Penne with Roasted Butternut Squash and Shiitake

I took a little time off last month...holidays and travel kept me pretty busy so I thought, why not take a bit of a vacation from the world of blogging and just relax. That is, relax as much as one can when they are still responsible for most of the meals being served in the house.

Most? Unless we are eating out, I guess you could make that all.

Brian and I took a little vacation to Cancun, where we enjoyed the sunshine while relaxing, seeing interesting sites, and meeting interesting people.

Who liked to play with their food, or at least the condiments. Quite entertaining.

We ate more street tacos and ceviche than I had ever had in my life! So fresh and simple and delish! It reminded me that, food doesn't have to be fancy to be good...a motto I cook to.

I also was able to have lunch with my handsome eldest son and gorgeous granddaughter at a lovely restaurant, George's on the Cove,  situated on the rustic coast of La Jolla, southern California.

It was a perfect day to sit on the terrace, enjoy the sunshine, crashing surf, easy conversation, and a great meal.

But back to the making of Penne Pasta with Roasted Butternut Squash and Shiitake

One of the menu items at Georges is a pasta dish that used a butternut squash puree as the sauce, which was then topped with sautéed shiitake mushrooms, a bit of Reggiano Romano cheese, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

I've been trying to incorporate more vegetarian dishes into my daily eating, and while I don't like mushrooms, the dish sounded intriguing. Both my son and I ordered it. Me with no mushrooms. Chris, with his, plus my mushrooms, please.

It was good. And it got my mind to working on how I could easily make this at home AND how could I make it even better.

So that's what I set out to do, and that's what I did.

What you need to make Penne with Roasted Butternut Squash and Shiitake

• Butternut squash
• Penne Pasta
• Shiitake Mushrooms
• Shallot or onion
• Butter, olive oil, salt, pepper
• Fresh sage leaves - optional but good

What kind of pasta should I use?

It's always funny to me that while all pasta is made of the same ingredients, each shape seems to taste different. Or maybe it's the shape that fools our brain into thinking it tastes different.

Whatever.

I do know that certain shapes of pasta work better with certain presentations. While the dish was served with linguine in the restaurant, I wanted to use a tubular pasta that would hold the rich roasted butternut squash sauce on the inside, as well as the outside; so I chose penne rigate - its ridged outside making it perfect to hold the rich, thick, sauce.

You could use another tubular pasta such as ziti, rigatoni, or penne. Or even linguini, if you so choose.

Do I need to Salt the Pasta Water?

The short answer is yes.

When cooking the pasta, do salt the water, but don't over-salt it. You are going to reserve some of that pasta cooking water to thin the roasted squash puree, so you don't want it overly salty. About 1 tablespoon, or slightly more, to a large pot of water should salt it nicely.

What happens when you oversalt pasta water?

I remember once at a very nice restaurant I ordered a pasta dish, just pasta with basil pesto. Simple fresh flavors. OMG - it was SO salty I couldn't eat it. So I sent it back telling them it was just too salty. They remade it. It came back ... too salty.

I told them it was still too salty - and the waiter looked at me like I had grown a third eye as he explained the chef was very careful NOT TO ADD any salt to my plate.

"Did he use the pasta water to thin the sauce?" I asked.

"Yes" was the answer.

"Well then, I think he over-salted the pasta water," I said. And yes, when the chef tasted just the pasta water, it was WAY too salty.

So lightly salt your pasta water. Give it flavor. Don't throw the whole ocean at it.

What's the Best Squash to use? Butternut

I love the flavor of butternut squash, not only one of the most common squashes available today but also one that helps fight obesity while delivering 437% of your daily requirement of vitamin A. At only 82 calories per serving, with zero fat, it helps fill you up with a good dose of fiber.

Butternut squash is so versatile, you can steam it, boil it, roast it, mash it, or in this case, make it into a sauce to flavor the pasta. If you were only making the puree, you could simply steam, microwave, or boil the cubes. Because I have both chunks of squash, as well as the puree, I roasted.

More flavor.

The one thing I don't like about butternut squash?

Peeling it. Butternut squash is an oddly shaped vegetable, with a very thick skin. The easiest way I have found to prepare butternut squash is to cut it in half through the middle, separating the top from the bottom, remove the seeds, then cut each half into quarters, and peeling the skin off with a sharp knife or Y-style peeler. Then cut into proper pieces...OR

Sometimes you just have to love convenience.

While the cubes are not ½ inch, they are easily made into uniform ½ inch pieces. Remember you need a consistent size for even roasting, so get them as close as you can to bite-sized. Half will go into the puree, half will go into the dish.

After roasting, puree half of the squash in a blender or food processor with some of the reserved, not too salty, pasta water, until you get the consistency of a thick tomato sauce. You want it fairly thick. We can always use some of the water to thin it down once we get it into the skillet to finish the dish.

What kind of Mushroom is best to use?

My most favorite hated subject.

I don't like mushrooms. I blame it on Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup and all the recipes they wrote for all the magazines and on all their soup cans back in the 50's and 60's when fresh mushrooms were few and far between. Canned mushrooms were the staple of the day, and they were horrible, in my mind's eye...akin to eating dirt while chewing on your tongue.

Not pleasant.

I know that we've come a long way baby, and today's mushrooms are "delicious". However, as soon as I bite into their spongy texture and taste that "fresh earth", my mind says, NO, just say NO.

But I do cook them well. According to my husband and sons, all mushroom lovers,  I cook them very well.

Shiitake mushrooms have a smokey flavor. A symbol of longevity in Asia due to their health benefits, shiitake mushrooms have been used in Chinese medicine for more than 6000 years. Mushrooms are unlike most organisms in that they are a fungus, not a plant. A fungus has no roots, no leaves, no flowers, and no seeds. It simply grows from the moisture and microcosms in the dirt.

Sorry, I'm still not feeling the love.

I think, when it comes to mushrooms, there are two camps. Those that LOVE LOVE LOVE them and those that don't. Not too many in the "take them or leave them" camps.

Can I use another mushroom other than Shiitake?

I have made this with other types of mushrooms, cremini, and baby Bellas. And while the results were good, my mushroom-eating guests thought the shiitake was the best choice.

A large portabella mushroom might work well.

What's the BEST way to cook mushrooms?

Mushrooms act like little sponges when it comes to cooking them. In other words, if the pan is not hot enough, or if the pan is not large enough, or you use too much oil, and butter, then you will have little sponges that soak up the fat, not little mushrooms that brown in the fat. So when looking at the pan to use for your mushroom sauté, choose one that seems slightly too large, rather than just right. You can use this same skillet to finish the dish, so there won't be an extra pan to wash.

How can I tell if my skillet is hot enough for the mushrooms?

My mother taught me the best way to find out if a pan was hot was to drip a drop of water onto the surface, if it sputtered, it was too cool, if it danced across the service and then disappeared, it was just right.

So use a large hot pan, get the pan hot, then get your oil and butter hot, add the mushrooms and quickly cook until they are brown and tender.

Why make Sage Butter?

You could finish this recipe for Penne Pasta with Roasted Butternut Squash and Shiitake Mushroom with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil. That's a fine idea, and how the restaurant finished it. But I thought this creation needed something a bit more ... tasty. Finishing. Richer.

Sage and butternut are delish together. Browned butter is delish on both butternut and mushrooms (or so I'm told) and sage...well...what's not to love with that and mushrooms? So I made a small amount of browned sage butter to drizzle over the top, and it was, over the TOP. Such a small, simple step and it added so much umami richness.

While this step is at the bottom of the actual recipe, I like to make this first. Allowing the sage leaves to sit in the butter while everything gets ready for the love it will add, just allows it to develop its love further. Heat it up before you drizzle it over the top.

And it's just a drizzle. Flavor, not fat.

Put it together, and what have you got? A hearty, meaty, vegetarian meal. With or without the mushrooms, it is delish!

Penne with Roasted Butternut Squash and Shiitake

Wine Recommendation: With the rich meaty flavor of the mushroom, and the roasted squash, a lightly oaked chardonnay, that has been put through some malolactic fermentation works nicely with this dish.