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I love a good mac and cheese, frozen, from the box, on the stove top version, baked in the oven, any which way, I’ll take it. But sometimes, it’s too much of a good thing. So people have been resorting to sneaking in vegetables to try and lighten up their mac and cheese. Orange cauliflower just can’t replace a pile of freshly grated cheddar. So let’s stop pretending, shall we? Let’s make a baked pasta that doesn’t pretend it’s mac and cheese, but hits all those comfort food buttons. Let’s make a butternut squash pasta bake.<\/p>\n
What, didn’t you just say, vegetables can’t replace a pile of grated cheddar? Yeah, I did. This pasta bake has more in common with lasagne the Italian way, which isn’t a cheese bomb and turns to bechamel for its richness.<\/p>\n
The key is to build the flavor into our butternut squash. We’re seasoning it well and roasting it with garlic cloves before pur\u00e9eing the lot and and incorporating it into the bechamel. Chunks of butternut squash add some visual interest. Cheese comes into play only as a topping to give it a salty kick and crunchy brown crust. I recommend getting Ferndale Farmstead Cheese’s Scamorza<\/a> if you can get it, otherwise a whole milk dry mozzarella will do.\u00a0 Garnish with chopped hazelnuts for texture and fall flare. Look, I won’t say this butternut squash pasta bake is healthy, but it’s getting there.<\/p>\n\t\r\n\t
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