Pasta with Butternut Squash Sauce, Spicy Sausage and Baby Spinach
Pasta in a decadent creamy, homemade, butternut squash pasta sauce, with no cream! The spicy chicken sausage and sage is the perfect compliment, this pasta dish is filling and comforting on a chilly night.
This oldie is perfect for the change of seasons, I just added video to the recipe!
How To Make Pasta with Butternut Sauce
Butternut squash makes the creamiest sauce, which makes it a healthy, lighter alternative to cream sauces made with heavy cream and butter. It’s also easy to do! To make it quick, buy pre-cut or frozen butternut squash. You can double the sauce recipe and freeze it for another day!
More Pasta Recipe You May Enjoy:
- Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage
- Pasta with Chicken Sausage, Peppers and Escarole
- One Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
- Cajun Chicken Pasta on the Lighter Side
- Penne with Brussels Sprouts Ragu
Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage and Baby Spinach
Pasta in a decadent creamy, homemade, butternut squash pasta sauce, with no cream! The spicy chicken sausage and sage is the perfect compliment, this pasta dish is filling and comforting on a chilly night.
Ingredients:
- 11 oz (4 links) spicy chicken Italian sausage
- 1 lb butternut squash, peeled and diced
- 1 tbsp whipped butter
- 10 oz pasta, wheat or gluten-free
- 1/4 cup shallots, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh shaved parmesan cheese
- 4 sage leaves, sliced thin
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add butternut squash and cook until soft.
- Remove squash with a slotted spoon and place in a blender, blend until smooth.
- Add pasta to the boiling water and cook according to package directions for al dente, reserving at least 1 cup of the pasta water before draining.
- Meanwhile, in a large deep non-stick skillet, sauté sausage over medium heat until browned, breaking up with a spoon as it cooks. When cooked through, set aside on a plate.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and melt the butter, sauté the shallots and garlic until soft and golden, about 5 – 6 minutes.
- Add pureed butternut squash, season with with salt and fresh cracked pepper and add a little of the reserved pasta water (I used about 1 cup) to thin out the sauce to your liking.
- Add baby spinach and stir in parmesan cheese and sage. Toss in cooked pasta and sausage and mix until well coated.
- Serve with additional parmesan cheese on the side if desired.
Nutrition Information
Yield: 5 servings, Serving Size: 1 1/4 cups
- Amount Per Serving:
- Freestyle Points: 9
- Points +: 9
- Calories: 362 calories
- Total Fat: 8g
- Saturated Fat: g
- Cholesterol: mg
- Sodium: 419mg
- Carbohydrates: 55g
- Fiber: 5g
- Sugar: 1g
- Protein: 20g
Vegetarian Meals
Under 30 Minutes
Freezer Friendly
Paleo
Slow Cooker Recipes
Low Carb
Kid Friendly
Dairy Free
Pressure Cooker Recipes
Whole 30 Recipes
Keto Recipes
Just made this for the first time and it is delicious! Perfectly creamy and decadent but with hidden veggies. Will be making a lot!
Quick, easy, comforting. This has been popping up as one of my go to weeknight meals. The whole family loves it.
This was a pretty quick and easy dinner. We used sweet Italian instead of spicy sausage since our kiddo doesn’t care for spicy food. I forgot that it called for butter and accidentally used evoo instead. We didn’t have shallots handy so we used onion. And we used penne for the pasta. Oh and I used some mixed dry herbs in place of the sage. Considering I didn’t follow this recipe very closely, it came out very tasty. That’s what I love about your recipes. It’s so easy to adjust them as needed and still have a fabulous dinner. It was a cozy meal on a warm day and looked very fancy for something so easy.
This has become a staple in our house. So easy and so delicious! You don’t miss the cream at all – in fact the pumpkin gives it that much more depth.