Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta with Maple Turkey Sausage and Arugula

Butternut squash is everywhere these days.  It’s extremely versatile, healthy, and really, really delicious.  Versatility is really key here – It can be sweet, salty, soft, hard, pureed, solid, and the list goes on. To give you an idea, here is BuzzFeed’s list of “31 Delicious New Ways to Cook Butternut Squash” :
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/31-delicious-new-ways-to-cook-butternut-squash

I picked up a butternut squash with the intention of making one of my favorite dishes – Butternut Squash soup.  After some googling, I stumbled upon a ton of Butternut Squash pasta sauce recipes. Pictures alone were enough to sell me – Butternut squash makes a beautiful and creamy-looking pasta sauce.  I always like to throw in some protein and greens, so I added maple turkey sausage and arugula.  I thought the sweetness of the maple would be a perfect complement to the butternut squash and the pepper of the arugula would give the sauce a little kick. The end result was a creamy, extremely filling, and salty, sweet pasta dish.

What you need:
1 Butternut Squash
1 package 16 oz. Lean Ground Turkey
1 cup chicken stock (plus extra for boiling)
3.5  tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 small white onion
1.5 tbsp pure maple syrup
Salt, Pepper, Bragg’s Sprinkle Seasoning
Parmesan Cheese
1 Box Penne Pasta ( or any pasta you want)

The Sauce:
Boil a combination of chicken stock and water (about 50/50).  Boiling the squash in the chicken stock will give it some extra flavor.  Peel and cube your butternut squash and boil it for about 15 mins.

Separately, chop up your onion and garlic.  In a large saucepan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil with the onion and garlic.  Add ½ cup of chicken stock and let it all simmer. Once your cubed butternut squash is tender, toss the squash into the pan and let it all simmer for about 5 minutes on low heat.  Throw the entire contents of your pan into your food processor, add in another ½ cup of chicken stock, and puree the mixture into a sauce. Season with salt, pepper, and Bragg’s.  Once you have a good consistency (you can add more chicken stock or water to loosen it up), return your sauce to your saucepan over low heat.

The Pasta:
Cook your box of pasta as directed on the box.

The Turkey & Arugula:
In a bowl, mix the ground turkey with the maple syrup.   In a saucepan, heat 1.5 tbsp EVOO and add the turkey.  Cook the turkey until it is fully brown – I like to keep it pretty chunky.  Add in the arugula and mix it all together on low heat.

Turkey/Arugula mix:

Mix the sauce, pasta, turkey, and arugula all together, top it off with parmesan cheese, and voila! Here’s a pictures of everything pre-mixed:

It all blended so well together. The sauce was creamy and salty, the subtle maple sweetness mixed throughout the sauce while the arugula added a little spice to it all. I’m not kidding you when I say this dish is filling.  The sauce/turkey combo could be enough on it’s own.  An easy and comforting winter meal. Yumyum!