Looking for an easy pasta recipe to make on school nights? Look no further! Or are you looking for a sophisticated take on americanized Italian food that takes no time to make but could easily impress a crowd? Well, my gluten free pasta with butternut squash, brown butter, and sage is perfect for either occasion! I love this recipe because it is perfect for fall! The butternut squash is currently in season, and sage and brown butter just go perfectly with the rest of the dish. I also like to add chicken to this recipe, although it is optional, but I would highly recommend it if you’re making this pasta as a whole meal. Adding a protein just makes it was more filling.
Simple Ingredients
As you can tell from the photo, the ingredients in the recipe are all really fresh! I use pre-cubed butternut squash from the store (a huge timesaver, especially if it is a weeknight) and fresh sage. The chicken I bought was also from Whole Foods, and I just shredded it before getting started with the rest of the recipe. Then, I used a shallot, butter, heavy cream, and of course, the best gluten free pasta in the world.
Notes on the Gluten Free Pasta
For this recipe, I would highly recommend grabbing a FRESH gluten free pasta. Having fresh pasta really just elevates the dish to a whole new level. The pasta I used was the gluten free fresh cavatelli from The Food Crate. Since ordering this pasta for the first time, I have become obsessed. It’s SO tender and soft, and at the same time has a great bite to it. I think the cavatelli shape is also perfect for this recipe because of the grooves in the pasta. They collect the brown butter sauce and it just is AMAZING.
This recipe aside, The Food Crate has some AMAZING gluten free pastas on their website, and I would totally recommend ordering from them the next time you need ny gluten free pasta! Check out their website down below and order some AMAZING products that are all made celiac safe! I’m looking forward to ordering more from them and working with them in the future, and hoping to bring you guys some new exciting GF projects!
Notes on the recipe-
Making the Squash
I like to make the squash in my ninja foodie (air fryer type thing) so it’s pretty easy to do.
Really the only notes I would have on the squash would be to make sure you stir it around and spray it with cooking spray every 5 or so minutes. Take it out when it is fully cooked. It should be really easy to cut through with the side of a fork.
So the first thing to do, other than shred the chicken, is dice the shallot and the chiffonade the sage.
Now, unless you actually enjoy biting into a chunk of a partially cooked shallot, I would recommend slicing the shallots as thin as you can. As for the sage, I would a standard chiffonade technique. This will ensure you have a nice even thin slice of the sage and that’ll make the flavor more prominent in the dish.
AFter slicing the shallot and sage, boil the water for your pasta. Now the Food Crate cavatelli only cooked for about 5 ish minutes, but the rest of the recipe is pretty quick and easy to make, so start cooking the pasta after chopping to ensure it doesn’t get overcooked.
Add the butter to the pan. You want to make sure, while you’re doing this, that the heat is low to medium to make sure the butter melts and browns slightly, but doesn’t burn.
It’s important to monitor the brown butter sauce because it will burn and become bitter very easily. In order to avoid burning, I would say stir pretty frequently.
Pretty self explanatory, but once you add the shallots and sage, stir frequently until it’s time to add the chicken and squash.
Then, add the pasta and stir. At this point it is important to taste your dish. If you think it needs more salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, or sage, feel free to add.
Garnishing is optional, but I always recommend it!
Gluten Free Butternut Squash Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 bag The Food Crate gluten free cavatelli
- 1 small butternut squash, cubed
- 1 whole rotisserie chicken, shredded
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 large shallot
- 2 sprigs fresh sage
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
Instructions
- First, shred the whole rotisserie chicken and set aside. Set your air fryer to 400 degrees (or an oven) and add the butternut squash.
- Before adding, spray the baking sheet or basket with cooking spray. Bake for around 20 minutes, stirring or rotating every 5 minutes.
- Thinly slice the shallots and chiffonade the fresh sage leaves. Set aside while adding the butter to the pan. With the heat on medium low, stir until butter is browned. Be careful that the butter doesn't get too dark or bitter.
- Add the shallots, sage, salt, pepper, and red pepper to the pan. Saute until the shallots are tender and slightly clear.
- At this point, the squash should almost be done cooking at it will be time to start making the pasta. Add about 1 tbsp of salt to a pot of boiling water, then add the pasta and cook until done. I like to have my pasta slightly al dente, and so it only took around 3-5 minutes
- Add the squash and chicken to the pan and stir until warmed and chicken begins to brown. Then, add the cooked pasta and heavy cream. Stir until the pasta is coated in the sauce.
- At this point, I would recommend tasting the pasta to see if it needs more salt, more red pepper flakes, or more sage.
- Remove the pasta from the pan and plate it, then garnish with more red pepper flakes and sage.