Harvest Moon Pasta - Rachael Ray

Submitted by Blissful74

"This is a Rachael Ray recipe. This is so good, I just had to sit down and post it. A few modifications: I used ziti, 2% milk, a mexican blend of cheese and quite a bit of sriracha hot sauce. I omited the thyme, simply because I forgot it. It looks and feels like I'm eating creamy mac and cheese, but its better and more sophisticated...and comforting. I usually shy away from her recipes because they have too many ingredients and take way longer than she indicates. I relented as I had all the ingredients on hand. Yum-O. seriously."

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 lb pasta (macaroni or ziti, recommend hollow, ribbed pasta)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons thyme
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 1⁄2 cups whole milk
• salt and pepper
• 1 dash nutmeg
• 1 (12 ounce) package frozen butternut squash, thawed
• hot sauce
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
• fresh parsley
• 1 dash paprika

directions

1. Bring water to a boil, season with salt and cook macaroni to al dente.
2. Preheat broiler and place rack in middle of the oven.
3. Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a sauce pot over medium heat, saute onions and garlic until soft, 6 to 7 minutes and stir in the thyme.
4. Scoot onions off to side of pan and melt butter, whisk flour into butter and combine whisk 1 minute then whisk in stock and milk, season sauce with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and cook until thickened, about 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Stir in butternut squash and a few dashes hot sauce. Reduce heat. When sauce comes to a bubble, stir in Parmigiano. Combine the sauce and macaroni, transfer to a casserole dish and top with shredded yellow Cheddar, chopped parsley and paprika. Brown the macaroni under broiler, 4 to 5 minutes until brown and bubbly.

Reviews

[CASunshine]

Yumm-o! Made exactly as the recipe stated except for the addition of some leftover ham cut into cubes. Delicious! Next time I'll cut the pasta to a 1/2 lb because this wasn't as "saucy" as we like but that's just us and no reflection on the recipe. Next time, towards the end of cooking, I may add some frozen peas for a nice splash of color and nutrition. Thanks so much for posting this!

 

[Calee]

Wow this is good. I had only 1/2 pound of ziti pasta and made the sauce as written. It was perfect. Loved the combination of thyme and butternut squash. I will be making this again, comfort food with a twist. Thanks for sharing this recipe. A keeper!! Made for PAC spring 09.

 

[sugarpea]

Made the full sauce recipe for 1/2 lb of pasta, used low fat versions of everything and skipped the broiler browning but made no other changes. I'd never used frozen squash before and I was impressed with how well it worked and how great it tasted. I'll use it again. I was expecting pasta with a squash-based sauce. What I got was macaroni and cheese, fabulous macaroni and cheese. You're right, this is worthy of 27*, Blissful74.