Pasta with Squash Sauce

Ok, maybe not the best title.  I mixed leftover canned pumpkin and half a roasted butternut squash for this one.  I'm making the recipe slightly larger for four servings and an entire squash.

I did discover that butternut squash is a whole lot easier to cut if you buy the smallest one in the pile. The larger ones are dense and generally have it out for me, but I had no trouble getting through this one.  Peeling it raw is still pretty much impossible, so it was just as well I wanted the roasted flavor in the sauce.

As for the pasta, the photo shows some leftover soba noodles.  A white pasta would be considerably more appetizing.  That little patch of green at the top is the greens from the first radishes I picked.  I'm good at growing radishes.  The greens taste like spinach when blanched.  Need to come up with more uses for the radishes themselves.

*1 small butternut squash
*1  C canned pumpkin
*1/2 C diced onion
1 Tb olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 C mascarpone cheese
milk as needed
2 Tb pine nuts for garnish
4 servings cooked pasta of choice

1.  Preheat oven to 375º.  Line a baking sheet with foil.  Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds.  Place cut-side down and roast until skin is easily pierced by a fork, about 45 minutes.  Allow to cool until you can handle it and peel off the skin.  Dice flesh into bite-sized pieces.

2.  Start boiling water for your pasta.  Drizzle oil in a 10" skillet and heat over medium.  Cook onion until softened, 3-5 minutes.  Add pumpkin and squash.  Once everything warms together, the butternut will start to give off more moisture.  If you want the sauce thinner, stir in half a cup of water or vegetable broth.  That's what I did.  Stir in salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

3.  When your pasta is finished and draining, add mascarpone cheese to the sauce and stir until creamy.  If you need to thin out the sauce again, use milk.  Either add pasta to skillet and toss to coat, or plate pasta first and spoon sauce on top.  Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts if desired and serve hot.

Difficulty rating. :)