This brown butter butternut squash pasta with sage features butternut squash roasted with miso and garlic, a vegan brown butter sage sauce, crispy shallots, fried sage, and almond parmesan. It’s a comforting crowdpleaser with layers and layers of flavor and texture that are so simple to put together!
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I firmly believe in fall flavors, but I also firmly believe in texture. And I just don’t think creamy pastas reach their full potential until there are contrasting textures involved. This pasta has a creamy brown butter sage sauce, but not without some crispy shallots, fried sage (fried in the oil leftover from the shallots, I can thank Samin Nosrat for that tip, obtained from this podcast episode), almond parmesan, and tender cubes of butternut squash.
What’s in this Pasta
This pasta features layers and layers of flavors, but the hardest step is probably just cutting the squash. You start with roasting the squash with miso, smashed garlic cloves, and olive oil. Some of the miso and garlic melt into savory bits of goodness of their own that you’ll definitely want to add to the final product! Separately, you sizzle garlic, walnuts, and sage in butter until the butter browns. There may be some dairy chemistry involved in making brown butter, but we like to go plant-based around here, so I used some Miyoko’s vegan butter and it still browned nicely!
For the toppings, I fried some thinly sliced shallots and saved the olive oil to fry some sage leaves. If you are making this pasta hours before serving, I’d recommend not mixing in the fried shallots and sage until it’s time to serve. Gotta maintain the crisp! I also whipped up some of Laura Wright’s almond parmesan from her blog, The First Mess. It’s a 2-minute recipe and was delightful to have at the table while serving.
I made this for friendsgiving this year and I would totally make it for Thanksgiving with my family, but my dad isn’t a fan of pasta (it’s crazy, I know). Instead, I will be making the exact same thing with rice because the flavors and textures here are what makes this dish incredible!
Brown Butter Butternut Squash Pasta with Sage
Ingredients
Roasted Butternut Squash
- 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed *approximately 3 cups of cubed squash
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp white miso
- 3 garlic cloves, smashed
Brown Butter Pasta
- 20-24 oz. rigatoni pasta or pasta of choice *this made quite a bit. If you would like to reduce to 16 oz. pasta, that would also work well.
- ⅓ cup vegan butter
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
- 30 sage leaves
- salt to taste
Toppings
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 20 sage leaves
- lemon zest, red pepper flakes *optional
- 1 recipe of almond parmesan (linked in instructions)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 °F. In a small bowl, mash the garlic with the miso and olive oil. Microwave for 30 seconds and brush onto the squash. Roast butternut squash for about 25 minutes or until fork tender.
- Cook pasta al dente according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water. If not tossing the pasta with the brown butter sage sauce immediately, rinse with cold water to stop it from cooking further and add a little olive oil to prevent it from sticking together.
- Add butter to a pan over medium heat. Let it melt completely before adding garlic. Stir for 2 minutes. Add walnuts. Cook until the butter is brown and the walnuts are golden. This should take about 4-5 minutes.
- Add 30 sage leaves to the buttery sauce. Cook until the leaves are shriveled.
- Add ~ ¾ cup pasta water. Lower heat and add pasta. Toss in roasted butternut squash. Check for salt.
- To a separate pan over medium heat, add 2 tbsp olive oil. Add shallots and cook until crisp and dark. Remove the shallots from the pan and place them on a plate lined with a paper towel. Then add the remaining sage leaves to the shallot-infused olive oil. Cook until crisp, so about 4-5 minutes.
- If you're interested in making the almond parmesan (highly recommend; it takes 2 minutes!) you can find the recipe here.
- Serve with the fried shallots, sage leaves, and almond parmesan. Optionally, add some lemon zest and red chili flakes!
If you love this fall recipe, you’d also love…
Butternut Squash Fries with Pesto Yogurt Sauce
I’m so glad to hear that Jane! Thank you for your kind words.
Tried this for the first time, and it’s going into the rotation! Beautiful flavor and textures. Thank you, Anisha!
lucky you for having all that sage! hope you love the pasta!
I have a ton of sage growing in my garden and wasn’t sure what to do with it but now I am going to make this pasta and use a bunch of it, great recommendation