Red Kuri Rigatoni

other recipes

Fall

|

1 hr

|

2 servings

This is a pretty flexible recipe for making a sauce with squash that could be used for anything. The only thing that differentiates this from a soup is its thickness. You could easily add more liquid and it would be a squash soup. At this thickness though, I even used the leftover sauce as a dip for tortilla chips for a football-watching snack. 

We used kale from the last share since it was still kicking around in the refrigerator, but you could add almost anything to the blended sauce for variety. Roasted brussel sprouts, grilled chicken or bok choy would all work well. We loved the kale because it gave the dish a ‘cheddar-broccoli’ vibe.

Ingredients

from your CSA Club Share

from your pantry

  • Oil – 2 T
  • Garlic – 4 small or 2 large cloves
  • Milk – 2.5 c
    • Sub chicken stock, veggie stock or water
  • Marjoram – 1 T
    • Sub oregano
  • Nutritional Yeast – 1 T
    • Sub parm
  • Black pepper – 1 t 
  • Soy sauce – 1 T
  • Kale – 1 flat (~4 c chopped)
  • Rigatoni (or other pasta) – 8 oz (½ box)
  • Salt – to taste (~4 pinches total)
  • Seasoned breadcrumbs – garnish (optional)

larder items

Nothing special for this recipe!

tools

Immersion blender or blender

Directions

mise

  1. Prep the veggies. No need to be perfect since everything is going to be blended (except for the kale).
    1. Rough chop the onion
    2. Deseed and rough chop the peppers, and combine with the onion.
    3. If using large garlic cloves, halve and add to the onion and pepper.
    4. Peel and rough chop the squash.
    5. Fine chop the kale into small pieces.
  2. Gather the milk, marjoram, nutritional yeast,  and black pepper.
  3. Prepare a large pot of salted water and strainer for the pasta, but don’t start to heat yet.

cook

  1. Add a generous amount of oil to a medium pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, pepper, garlic and pinch of salt, and sweat until just before the onion starts to get color (~8 mins).
  2. Add the milk, marjoram, nutritional yeast, black pepper and two more pinches of salt.
  3. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low and cover. Stir frequently, scraping the bottom to prevent any scorching. Cook until the squash is soft  (~10 mins)
  4. While the sauce is simmering, begin bringing your pot of salted water for pasta to a boil. Once boiling, cook pasta to al dente and strain.
  5. Once the squash is soft (test by trying to smash a piece against the side of the pot), remove from the heat and blend until smooth. 
  6. Return to low heat and add the kale and soy sauce. Stir constantly making sure to scrap the bottom to prevent scorching and the sauce from splattering until the kale is cooked (~3 mins).
  7. Remove from the heat, taste and season (I would guess at least another pinch of salt).

plate

In a medium bowl, add the pasta and enough sauce to cover. With mild-force, toss the pasta and sauce to fully incorporate. Spoon the pasta into two bowls and garnish with breadcrumbs.