🍽️Brown Butter Butternut Squash Rigatoni (Serves 4)

Serves: 4 Time: 50 minutes (30 of it is the squash roasting) Flavor: nutty, sweet-savory, Parmesan-forward, crispy sage Type: Fall pasta, one sheet pan + one pot + two small skillets

Roasted squash blended with brown butter, cream, and Parmesan makes a sauce as silky as vodka sauce with none of the tomato. Crispy fried sage goes on top, plus a squeeze of lemon so it doesn't get heavy. Vegetarian as written. Browned Italian sausage goes on the meat plates and plant-based Italian sausage on hers, so the split works just like the vault's sausage pasta.

Ingredients

Roasted Squash

• 1 medium butternut squash (about 2½ lb), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1" cubes (or 2 lb pre-cubed)
• 1 yellow onion, cut into 8 wedges
• 4 cloves garlic, left unpeeled
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp kosher salt, ½ tsp black pepper

Sauce

• 1 lb rigatoni
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 small pack fresh sage, about 16 leaves
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 cup grated Parmesan, divided, plus extra for the table
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 1½ cups reserved pasta water

Protein Options

• Vegetarian: 1 pack (about 14 oz) plant-based Italian sausage, such as Beyond Italian links, casings removed and crumbled
• Meat: 1 lb Italian sausage (mild or hot), casings removed

To Serve

• Extra Parmesan
• Red pepper flakes, at the table
• Cracked black pepper

Instructions

1. Roast the squash. Heat the oven to 425°F. Toss the squash, onion wedges, and unpeeled garlic with the olive oil, salt, and pepper on a sheet pan in one layer. Roast 30–35 minutes, flipping halfway, until the edges are deeply caramelized. The browning is where the flavor comes from, so don't pull it pale.
2. Boil the water. Salt it well.
3. Brown the sausages in two skillets. Pork sausage over medium-high, breaking it up, 7–8 minutes until browned and cooked through. Plant-based sausage in a second skillet with 1 tsp olive oil, 5–6 minutes. It browns faster and dries out if pushed. Keep them separate. Set aside half of each for Thursday's fried rice.
4. Brown the butter and fry the sage. Wipe out the plant-sausage skillet (keep it meat-free). Melt the butter over medium, add the sage leaves in a single layer, and cook 1–2 minutes until the leaves are crisp and the butter smells nutty and has brown flecks. Lift the sage onto a paper towel. Keep the butter.
5. Cook the rigatoni one minute short of al dente. Reserve 1½ cups of pasta water before draining.
6. Blend the sauce. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skins. Blend the squash, onion, garlic, all the brown butter, the cream, ½ cup Parmesan, the nutmeg, and ½ cup pasta water until completely smooth. An immersion blender in the pasta pot works too.
7. Toss. Return the pasta to the pot over low heat, pour in the sauce, and toss with splashes of pasta water until glossy and loose. It thickens as it sits. Off the heat, stir in the remaining ½ cup Parmesan and the lemon juice. Taste for salt.
8. Serve. Rigatoni in bowls, crumbled crispy sage on top, plus more Parmesan and black pepper. Pork sausage on the meat plates, plant-based on hers. Red pepper flakes at the table.

Tips & Variations

• Toddler portion: the sauce is naturally sweet and mild, so it's an easy sell. Scoop hers before the sage and pepper go on. Cut the rigatoni in half if it's too big.
• Peeling squash: cut off both ends, stand it up, and peel down with a sharp Y-peeler. Pre-cubed squash saves 10 minutes and works just as well.
• Hold back a few roasted cubes before blending and scatter them on top for texture.
• Too thick? More pasta water, never more cream.
• Leftovers: reheat with a splash of water or milk. The sauce tightens a lot in the fridge.
• Swap the protein: crispy prosciutto for you, or toasted walnuts for her.