Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

A creamy vegan butternut squash pasta sauce made with simple healthy ingredients.

Course Dinner

Cuisine American

Keyword butternut squash pasta sauce, creamy vegan pasta sauce, healthy butternut squash pasta

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Total Time 40

Servings servings

Calories 368kcal

Author Madeline Tague

Ingredients

16 oz bag of frozen diced butternut squash
1.5 cups fresh chopped tomatoes
1/2 yellow onion
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 lb pasta
1/3 cup pasta water reserved from cooked pasta

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place frozen cubed butternut squash, chopped tomatoes and sliced onion on the baking sheet
Drizzle olive oil on top and season with salt, pepper, and thyme. Mix to cover the vegetables evenly with oil and seasonings. Bake at 450F for 20 minutes.
While the veggies bake, cook the pasta according to package instructions. Before you drain the cooked pasta reserve 1/3 cup of the pasta water and place in a blender. (I personally like to reserve a whole cup of pasta water in case I need extra)
Take the cooked veggies hot from the oven and blend with the pasta water until a smooth sauce remains. Pour the sauce over the cooked pasta and toss to coat. Serve immediately with parmesan cheese or plant based parm

Notes

Yield: This makes about 3 cups of sauce, enough for 1 lb of pasta.

Squash: Roast it straight from frozen — don’t thaw it, or it steams instead of browning. To use fresh, peel and cube about 1 small squash into ¾-inch pieces.

Pasta water: Scoop out a full cup before draining even though the recipe uses ⅓ cup. The starch is what makes the sauce creamy, and you’ll want the extra to loosen it.

Pasta shape: Ridged or curly shapes hold this sauce best — radiatori, rigatoni, shells, fusilli. Skip long thin pasta; the sauce slides off.

Season twice: Season the vegetables before roasting, then taste again after blending. It almost always wants more salt. If it tastes flat rather than under-salted, add a squeeze of lemon.

Storage: Fridge up to 7 days, sauce stored separately from pasta. Freeze the sauce alone up to 3 months — never freeze it tossed with cooked pasta.

To bake it: Toss with slightly undercooked pasta, top with breadcrumbs and parmesan, and bake at 350°F for 20 to 30 minutes.

Dairy-free: The sauce has no dairy. Finish with parmesan or a plant-based parm.

Nutrition