Zucchini Linguine with butternut squash
I failed to take a picture that did justice to this great recipe. But once you read this great harvest recipe, you’ll see why I can’t wait to make this one again.
After the success of our carrot fettuccine the other night, we wanted to try other vegetables to substitute for noodles. What about zucchini?
Turns out you can take peeled zucchini and saute it and it makes a cool noodle substitute. I decided to try pairing it with a butternut squash concoction. I suppose some people will be horrified at the notion of mixing a summer squash with a winter squash. But they’re both squash and the flavors go together quite well.
When you’re peeling the zucchini, the seedy part in the middle doesn’t lend itself to making the noodles. So I cut them into chunks and set them aside. Then I tossed the butternut squash, mushrooms, zucchini centers and some sage leafs in a little bit of olive oil and sea salt. This roasted for about 30 minutes at 425. When I do it again I’ll cut the butternut squash into smaller pieces. The big ones need longer than 30 minutes to get soft.
After it’s been roasting 20 or 30 minutes, I took out about a half cup of butternut squash to make a puree. This goes into a cup of boiling water, and then mash it down. This ends up being your pasta sauce. This tastes like a pretty rich and nutty butter sage sauce, but it’s actually made from the squash and just a little bit of olive oil.
Once it’s mashed, I put everything in the saute pan for about 8 minutes on fairly low heat.
Will have to figure out some tweaks to make this recipe look more appealing in photographs, but it sure tasted delicious.
Ingredients
- 4 zucchinis
- 2 cups butternut squash
- 1 cup mushrooms
- Dozen or so sage leaves
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- Couple pinches of sea salt
Directions
- Heat over to 425
- Peel the zucchinis into noodles, setting aside the seedy center
- Chop the seedy zucchini centers and the butternut squash into about 1 inch pieces. Add the sage leaves. Toss this mixture in a bowl with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a couple pinches of sea salt.
- Transfer the mixture to a roasting pan and put in the oven. Roast for about 10 minutes.
- Put the mushrooms in the bowl and toss them with the oil that’s still in the bowl. You could add another sage leaf and a bit more olive oil if you want, but I still had plenty of oil in the bowl.
- Add the mushrooms to the oven and roast for another 20-30 minutes.
- With about 15 minutes left in the roasting, start these next two steps. Get a small pot of water boiling with about 1 cup of water on one burner. And heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet on medium heat on your other burner.
- Pick about 1/2 cup of butternut squash out of the oven and add it to the boiling water. For me this was about 8 pieces. Let it boil a bit then start mashing it.
- Once the oil is hot, start sauteeing the zucchini noodles. Alternate between mashing the squash and stirring the noodles.
- After 8 minutes, turn the heat on the skillet down a little bit and add the mashed squash puree. Then add the roasted vegetables. Stir everything around for about 5 minutes and you are ready to eat.
Goat’s mom sent me your way – nice work! I’ve liked reading your adventures, to date, with veggie noodles. Our family loves them, too, and I use a “Spiralizer” bought on amazon.com to make mine.