Pasta with Winter Squash and Pine Nuts

Squashes are in season in the supermarket! They're in big beautiful piles right now - butternut, acorn, kabocha, hubbard. This pasta is a great way to capture the taste of the fall.

Heat a tablespoon of vegan butter (such as Earth Balance) in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of toasted pine nuts and a teaspoon and a half of chopped fresh sage - remove from the pan and set aside.

Return the pan to the burner and heat half a teaspoon of olive oil, again over medium-high heat. Add one small minced garlic clove; saute thirty seconds, then add 1/2 a pound peeled, seeded and shredded butternut squash and 1/2 cup water to the skillet. Cook for about 6 minutes until the initial batch of liquid is absorbed. Add 3/4 cup of water to the skillet, (1/4 cup at a time), absorbing the liquid in between each dose, and stirring occasionally - this felt almost like making a risotto with squash instead of rice!

Add 1/2 tsp. raw sugar, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper, and transfer the squash mixture to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, cook 6 ounces of penne pasta according to package directions (this is a great time to use a kitchen scale for accuracy). I used the organic penne from Bionaturae: www.bionaturae.com

Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of cooking liquid (and,um, don't splash boiling water on your finger like I did). Add the pasta to the squash mixture, along with the reserved cooking liquid, the pine nut mixture from earlier, and 6 tablespoons of shredded vegan cheese - I used the mozzarella block from Galaxy Foods instead of the Parmesan in the original recipe.

Place one cup of the pasta mixture on each of three plates - top each serving with 2 more teaspoons of the shredded cheese for a dinner of 360 calories.

Cost:
sage $2.99
butternut squash $2.99
'cheese' $3.39