Creamy Orzo Pasta with Butternut Squash and Baby Spinach
Transform humble orzo into a cozy fall masterpiece with roasted butternut squash, sage, and baby spinach. Ready in 30 minutes.
Equipment
- 1 large saute pan or Dutch Oven
- 1 microplane or grater
Ingredients
- 800 g Butternut Squash
- 500 g Orzo Pasta
- 200 g Baby Spinach
- 150 g King Oyster Mushrooms or Porcini (or other Mushrooms)
- 50 g Gruyére (or other hard cheese)
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 2 shallots
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1.5 liters vegetable stock
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- 1 handful sage leaves
- 1 dl white wine optional
Instructions
Roasting the Squash
- Cut the Squash in half, remove the seeds and skin, and cut the squash into thumb size cubes.
- Put the cubes on a baking sheet and add 2/3 of the sage leaves. Sprinkle with olive oil and give everyithinga good mix.
- Roast the Butternut Squash in the oven at around 200°C / 400°F for about 45 minutes or until golden and grispy.
- After the cubes came out of the oven, put around 3-4 tbsp of them into a mixer or food processor. Add around 5-6 tbsp of vegetable stock and mix to a creamy puree. Put both, the cubes and puree aside for later.
Preparing the other Ingredients
- finely chop the garlic and shallots and put aside for later. Also wash the baby spinach.
- cut the mushrooms lengthwise into quarters and fry them in a frying pan with some olive oil for 4-5 minutes until golden on all sides. Put them aside for later.
Cooking the Orzo Pasta
- In a deep sauté pan (or dutch oven) fry the shallots and garlic in enough olive oil until soft. Add the butter fry for another 2 minutes ad low heat. Deglace with the white wine and let it cook at low heat for a few minutes so the alcohol can evaporate.
- Now add the orzo pasta and toast the pasta in the other ingredients just until the pasta starts to stick at the bottom of the pan. Then add 2/3 of the vegetable stock. Cook the pasta for about 2 minutes with a closed lid at medium heat. Stir the pasta, add a little more vegetable stock if the pasta gets too dry, and cook for another 2 minutes until the pasta starts to get creamy.
- Turn down the heat and keep stiring and add some more stock from time to time until the pasta is just al-dente. Then add the squash puree and give everything a good mix.
- Now add the baby spinach and mix them into the pasta. Also add the Butternut Squash cubes now. Add some more stock if needed. Season with some pepper and salt, turn the heat off and give the pasta a rest for 1-2 minutes.
- Finely grate the cheese into the pan using a microplane or similar and stir the cheese into the pasta. Also add some more stock so the pasta will stay creamy.
- Serve the Fall Pasta onto the plates and garnish with the mushrooms (warm them up again if needed). Add some extra cheese on top and finely, sprinkle some olive oil.You're ready to enjoy a lovely portion of a creamy Fall Pasta!
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 400g