I have a confession: I don’t love fall as much as a lot of folks do. I don’t break out my sweaters and boots before I absolutely have to and I wouldn’t be caught dead with a Pumpkin Spice Anything before October 1. I can’t help it, I’m a spring and summer girl through and through. I am, however, head-over-heels for the flavors and aromas of fall cooking.
To me, autumn means pairing apples with onions, preparing Sunday dinners in the slow cooker and reaching for the rosemary, thyme and sage in my herb garden. And of course, autumn means cooking with butternut squash. My Brown Butter & Sage Butternut Squash Pasta brings together two of these classic fall flavors!
In each “Make it Snappy” column, I invite you to take advantage of a short cut offered to you by the grocery store and this is one that I have been preaching for years: pre-cubed butternut squash. In fact, it’s become a bit of an inside joke with my followers on Instagram. If you have ever gone toe to toe with a butternut squash then you know exactly why. They are large. They are unruly. They are stubborn and they are flat out dangerous. Peeling and cubing a butternut squash seems straight forward, but in that simple process you’re likely to lose a finger! The density of the squash and the force required to slice makes moving a knife through it choppy and inconsistent. If your knife slips, you’re risking serious injury. I have concluded that it’s not worth endangering myself when there is perfectly good, pre-cut squash on the grocery store shelves. You may pay a bit more, but when you think about the time you’ll save and the medical bills you’ll avoid, you may find that it’s worth it in the long run!
I am not a professionally trained chef, only a seasoned home cook. But brown butter sauce can be a bit tricky if you’re not familiar with the process and I wanted to share my experience with you.
BROWN BUTTER 101
- When it’s time to make the sauce, be ready to stay close by. It can come together quickly and if you step away, you risk burning the butter.
- The goal of a brown butter sauce is to heat the butter enough to evaporate the water, which will cause the solids to separate and toast. The toasted solids are how the brown color and nutty, rich flavor are developed.
- It’s best to use unsalted butter. Because of the way the butter separates, the salt can become concentrated in the solids and ruin the flavor.
- I advise using a skillet with a light color interior, such as stainless steel or a light cast iron like Le Creuset. The key to the butter is watching the color, so a dark base will make it difficult to see the color changing. I like to make mine in a dutch oven which leaves plenty of room to toss the pasta in the butter sauce before serving.
- Cut the butter into smaller chunks before melting, 6-8 pieces. If you put the whole stick in, it won’t melt evenly and some butter may burn while the rest is still melting.
- Resist the urge to crank up the heat! You need the butter to foam, meaning the bubbles will release the water, but butter also burns easily. On a scale of 1 to 10, stay in the 3-6 range. If the color isn’t as deep as you’d like, add time, not heat.
- Watch the sauce! The butter solids will look like sand forming in the butter. In my experience, they’ll start to turn orange, then a rust color and finally a deeper red brown. As soon as you see this deeper brown color, remove the skillet from the heat. You do not want the solids to turn black!
- Keep stirring the sauce for another minute after you’ve pulled it from the heat. It will continue cooking off the heat and you want to be sure the solids don’t cook too long and become black.
- Trust your nose, when the sauce is brown and it smells rich and nutty, you’re all done!
Now that we’ve got that down, let’s look at a wonderful application of brown butter in the form of a fall-friendly dish:
BROWN BUTTER & SAGE BUTTERNUT SQUASH PASTA
By: Christy Bray Graves
SERVES: 8
INGREDIENTS
- 2 lbs. cubed butternut squash (or one whole butternut squash, cubed)
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- 2 TBSP brown sugar*
- 1 lb. short cut pasta (such as penne, rigatoni, cavatappi or farfalle)
- 8 TBSP (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 6-8 pieces
- ¼ cup of fresh sage leaves, minced (or 4 teaspoons dried sage)**
TO GARNISH
- Parmesan cheese
- Nuts such as chopped walnuts or almonds
- Sesame seeds, toasted pumpkin seeds, I even like to use Trader Joe/s Everything but the Bagel Seasoning
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 400°. Toss the cubed butternut squash in the olive oil and brown sugar* until lightly coated. On a large sheet pan lined with foil (for easy cleanup!), spread the squash out in one even layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Roast the squash for 20-25 minutes turning every 10 minutes until the squash is tender and starting to caramelize.
- Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
- While the squash roasts and the pasta cooks, melt the butter pieces over medium heat in a large skillet or Dutch oven with a light-colored bottom. Stir frequently.
- After the butter has started to foam and sizzle, stir in the sage and cut the heat back to medium low. Keep stirring often to prevent burning!
- Watch the sauce, looking down beneath the sage to monitor the color. The butter solids will look like sand and go from orange to a deep red-brown. As soon as the solids turn brown, remove the skillet from the heat. Keep stirring for one more minute.
- Finish the sauce with parmesan cheese or dried sage if using.
- Toss the pasta and roasted squash in the brown butter sauce. Garnish with nuts, seeds, or additional parmesan and fresh sage.
NOTES
*Brown sugar is optional but can help the squash caramelize if you like it just a bit sweeter.
**I use both fresh and dried sage as I feel that using them together creates a deeper flavor. I add the minced fresh sage leaves to cooking butter and then stir in a teaspoon of dried sage when I remove the butter from the heat.
As a wife and mom of three young boys, I often consider myself a master “chaos coordinator.” Between running our family business, Chapel Hill Toffee, managing our household and balancing busy schedules, I love to create quick and simple recipes that I know my family will enjoy – and my kids will actually eat!
My recipes are more of a guide than a perfect plan. I will always encourage you to use what you have on hand and make substitutions to suit your tastes. I invite you to share your own ideas, questions and final products with us on Facebook and on Instagram by tagging @christybgraves and @wchlchapelboro.
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