Butternut Squash Pasta with Brown Butter Sage

overhead angle of pumpkin shaped pasta in a braiser pan

Butternut Squash Pasta with Brown Butter Sage

Trader Joe's Fall Zucchette Butternut Squash pasta tossed with simple and flavorful brown butter sage. It's simple, fast and delicious. The fun pasta shape is something the kids will love and perfect for fall!

Course Pasta

Cuisine Italian

Keyword brown butter sage, butternut squash pasta, pumpkin shaped pasta, trader joe's fall zucchette pasta

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 20

Total Time 25

Servings servings

Calories 599kcal

Author Lauren

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter
18 sage leaves roughly chopped
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
¼ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese plus more for topping
14 ounce bag Trader Joe's Fall Zucchette Pasta

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. While the water comes to a boil, make your sauce.
Cut the butter into small, uniform pieces. Heat a stainless steel or light colored pan over medium heat. Melt the butter, stirring very often. The milk fats in the butter will begin to darken (about 3 to 5 minutes).
As the butter cooks it will start to foam (about 2 to 3 minutes), use a spatula or wooden spoon to drag through the butter to check the color. When the butter foams, add the sage, it may pop a little if there is any moisture. Continue to cook the sage, constantly stirring, until it is dark green (about 1 to 2 minutes).
Stir in the fresh grated nutmeg and salt. Remove from the heat.
Cook the pasta according to package directions, before draining remove ½ cup of starchy pasta water and set aside. Add the hot pasta and apple cider vinegar to the brown butter sage sauce and toss with parmesan cheese. The pasta with absorb a bit brown butter sage sauce, if you'd like it a bit more saucy adjust by adding a little starchy pasta water at a time until it's a consistency you like.
Serve immediately and top with an extra sprinkle parmesan cheese.

Notes

Tips for making perfect browned butter:

Use a light colored pan so you can accurately judge the color of the butter as it cooks.
Cook over medium to medium-low heat. If you feel like things are browning too quickly, you can add a few splashed of pasta water to the sauce to slow down the cooking.
Cut the butter into smaller, uniform pieces to allow all the butter to cook at the same temperature.
You need to stir this sauce as it cooks so you can see the color of the butter, and to keep any fats from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
When you're done, BE DONE. Remove the pan from the burner. If your pasta isn't done cooking yet, you might want to consider moving the sauce to another pan or container so it doesn't continue to cook (and burn!) in the pan.

Nutrition