Food Blog: Penne with Butternut Squash, Goat Cheese, and Walnuts

OK - so while I mentioned long ago in this blog that I absolutely love to cook, I noticed that I have yet to write about it.  I think food is an important part of this blog, however, for one of many reasons - as a runner, I love to eat. I follow a fairly specific diet to fuel myself for each run (especially the long ones and the races), and so I'm always looking for healthy, light, complex-carb laden meals that will actually taste good.  Every now and then, I create a new recipe, and I will feature one of those later on this blog.  



For now, I will say that I was working on some paperwork for my job when I saw Giada De Laurentiis make this on the Food Network.  If you would like to see the recipe as she made it, you can find it here. I will still list out the ingredients, but with what I used. I should note that there were very few changes from what she did. 


So here's what you need:


Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 2-lb butternut squash
1 onion, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
Olive oil, for drizzling
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 14.5-oz box Barilla Plus penne
1 cup (8 oz) sun-dried tomato and basil goat cheese
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
1 packed cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan 


Tools: 
A large, very sharp knife (for the vegetables)
One large baking sheet 
One small baking sheet (to toast the walnuts)
A large pot for the pasta 
A colander to strain the pasta
A measuring cup (for the pasta water)
A grater (if you did not buy the cheese pre-grated)


Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, and cover a baking sheet with foil and spray with vegetable oil cooking spray. I find the foil makes for easier cleanup.


Now, the fun part - prepping the butternut squash.  This squash weighed almost three pounds, so later you'll see that I save some of it for another use in a plastic container. 

Chopping a butternut squash is probably one of my least favorite things to do in the kitchen.  I start by chopping it in half, and I cut a little off of each end so it will stand up on its own for easier peeling.  For the record, when I peel it, I just use the same knife I'm using to chop it and cut the skin off down the sides. I've tried a paring knife and an super sharp peeler, and I find that the easiest way to do it is with this giant knife. 

Before we continue, I suppose I should show off my lovely Bassett Hound-Labrador mixes.  They're always around when there's an opportunity to perhaps catch something I drop on the floor. Spooky on the left, Sundance on the right.  Sundance is usually faster at catching the food, and as such, is a twee bit larger than her sister.

Moving on. After peeling, I chop the large part of the squash in half so I can get to the seeds. Using a large spoon, simply scoop out all of the seeds and string in the middle so you have a nice, clean, string and seed-free squash.

Feel free to feed your household pets the innards if you like. (Kidding. Please don't. No Sundances were forced to consume any squash innards during this process.)


OK, all joking aside, now you should have two clean husks of butternut squash, and now you just want to chop them into 3/4 inch cubes, like the recipe says. As you chop them, you can go ahead and put them on the baking sheet, and with leftovers, just put them in an airtight container to use in something else.  Or, for a quick side dish, you can roast it in the oven (just like you are with this meal) at 425 for 40 minutes, and for the last five minutes, sprinkle brown sugar on top for a yummy glaze. 

Now you're ready to start chopping the onion.  I take this next part of the prep process very seriously.  I find that either sunglasses or swim goggles do a great job with blocking the tear-causing gases that make me weep every time I chop an onion.  Another neat trick - if you start crying when you chop the onion, you can also stick your head in the freezer for a few seconds and that also stops the tears. (Nope. No idea why I'm puckering up here.)

I prefer to chop the ends of the onions off, peel it quickly, then chop it in half lengthwise. After doing this, I cut each part in half vertically, then cut several large sections...this ensures that when I finally begin slicing, I'll have the 1/2 inch pieces the recipe calls for and I don't have to worry about spending any more time chopping than necessary.

Once this is done, you'll want to get your oil, salt, and pepper ready to go.  Simply drizzle the olive oil over the veggies, and liberally sprinkle with salt and pepper. I then toss the veggies together gently with a spatula - or my hands, whatever works - and then put in the oven.

At the same time, take your chopped walnuts (I bought them prepackaged) and sprinkle on your small baking sheet.   Giada says to toast for 6-8 minutes at 350, but I toasted them for 5 in my 425 oven with the squash and they came out fine.  

While your veggies are roasting, and after the walnuts have come out, you can prep the remaining ingredients.  Here, I demonstrate how I like to chop basil.  Basically, I just twist the leaves into a tight ball, and give that a rough chop. Then, after those pieces are on the cutting board, I give them another few rough chops across in the opposite direction, which produces exactly the size pieces I want for this recipe.

Lastly, I set the goat cheese out to soften a bit before I mix it in with the pasta.

Now you have about 20 minutes to kill. Do with it what you will. 

When the veggies have about 15 minutes of roasting time left, I start the water for my pasta.  I also sprinkle a liberal amount of sea salt into the water for the pasta.  I also use a fairly large pot because I am going to be cooking the entire box of pasta. I cook mine for 10 minutes, which makes it al dente (to the tooth) - not too firm, and absolutely not soft.  Nothing ruins a dish like this faster than gross pasta. 

IMPORTANT: When your pasta is done cooking, make sure you save about 2 cups of the pasta water! Do not dump all the water out when you're straining your pasta first.  This pasta water will help create your sauce, and because it has all the starches and seasoning from the pasta, it is much more complementary than plain water.

Now take your veggies out of the oven. 

Time to assemble everything - this is the easy part.  Add the warm pasta, a cup of the hot pasta water, and all of the goat cheese to a large bowl, like so:

Once the goat cheese has melted, add the veggies, walnuts, and basil. Toss together gently, and then add the Parmesan at the very end.

And that's it! Here's the finished dish, along with a grilled chicken breast marinated with sun-dried tomatoes and herbs. I will post the recipe for that marinade at a later time. Let me know what you think :)