Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage and Baby Spinach

I am always looking for easy, healthy-ish dinners to make, and recently Skinny Taste has been a go to website of mine.  My friend Rachel always makes recipes from here, so I asked her if she could recommend one to me.  Without pause, she said "The pasta with butternut sauce, spicy sausage, and baby spinach is my absolute favorite!"  I got the ingredients, and made it for dinner the next night.

Not only was it delicious, it was light, healthy AND packed a lot of flavor.  It reminded me of a vodka or alfredo sauce...richy and creamy...BUT it was made solely from butternut squash!  It's so nice to know you can get hearty meal that provides that comforting feeling without the excessive calories!  Try it out...I bet you won't be disappointed.

Ingredients

• 11 oz (4 links) spicy chicken Italian sausage
• 1 lb butternut squash, peeled and diced
• 1 tbsp butter
• 10 oz pasta, wheat or gluten-free
• 1/4 cup shallots, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh shaved parmesan cheese
• 4 sage leaves, sliced thin
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Steps

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add butternut squash and cook until soft.  It will be done when a knife can pierce the squash easily.  Remove squash with a slotted spoon and place in a blender.  Blend until smooth.
2. To the same pot of boiling water you used for the squash, add pasta and cook according to package directions for al dente, reserving at least 1 cup of the pasta water before draining.
3. Meanwhile, in a large deep non-stick skillet, sauté sausage over medium heat until browned, breaking up with a spoon as it cooks. When cooked through, set aside on a plate.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low and melt the butter, sauté the shallots and garlic until soft and golden, about 5 – 6 minutes. Add pureed butternut squash, season with with salt and fresh cracked pepper and add a little of the reserved pasta water (I used about 1 cup) to thin out the sauce to your liking. Add baby spinach and stir in parmesan cheese and sage.

5. Toss in cooked pasta and sausage and mix until well coated.  Serve with additional parmesan cheese on the side if desired.

My husband absolutely loved this meal.  We used mini rigatoni as our pasta, but you can use whatever kind you like.  The beauty of this meal is you can always add different proteins like regular chicken or pork spicy sausage if you prefer.  Get creative...I'm sure it will turn out great!

<3 P.S.

I ate the leftovers the next day, and the sauce was just as good, if not better!

To see full recipe on Skinny Taste click here