For the longest time I couldn’t really warm up to this orange veg. Until I met the butternut squash and gave it another try: This sort is just perfect for both roasting or mashing it up, as a cream substitute in pasta bakes for example.
My pasta recipe today works with roasted vegetable, salty feta and caramelised onions – super simple, delicous and quick!
Butternut Squash would be absolutely perfect in this dish, however, I tried it first before the pumpkin season had fully set in. I simply substituted it with sweet potato cubes: Sweet potatoes have a similiar texture, need a tad bit longer to cook though. They also provide a slightly sweeter flavour, blending in well with the feta and onions.
Delicious, fresh pasta dish perfect for a quick and healthy lunch in autumn
Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 15 minutes Total Time 25 minutes
- 250 g Pasta esp. nice: Penne or Tagliatelle
- 1 sweet potato or ~1/2 Butternut Squash
- about half a packet of feta cheese
- one red onion
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- Olive oil
- 1 tbsp of butter
- Salt and pepper and chili
- Fresh Basil
- Peel the sweet potato or butternut squash, cut it in cubes and cook in boiling saltwater for about 5 minutes.
- Use a big skillet to roast the finely chopped garlic in the olive oil, adding the cubes to brown. You could also mix the garlic with the oil and cubes and put it in the oven at 200°C for about 10 minutes.
- Cook the pasta al dente and cut the onions in fine slices in the meantime. Caramelise the onion slices in the butter over low heat.
- Crumb the feta and combine all the ingredients in the skillet, add olive oil, salt, pepper (and chili if you are the spicy kind of person) to taste.
- Finish off with some fresh basil and serve warm.
Tip:You can definitely reuse the sweet potato/squash water for the paste for a more intense flavour.Hint:
Feta cheese usually is rather salty itself so taste the dish before oversalting it
I honestly was surprised myself how much I liked this “dry” (=non saucy) pasta, due to the varying textures it is very interesting and just gorgeous in flavour. I definitely would recommend a nice salad and a glass of Hugo to go with it…perfect and so fast!
