Invented Recipe 2

People I know who are better cooks than I already have food blogs, but I'm chowing on this right now, and it tastes so autumnal that I feel like sharing. And besides, will the above food blogs provide dehydratable/indefinitely storable recipes for the inevitable zombie apocalypse? I think not.

Butternut Squash Pasta
The butternut squash at the store were huge this week, so this method of preparing them two ways works well.

1 large butternut squash, divided into slightly unequal halves
1 lb small pasta
about 1 lb/4 links chicken sausage with apple
1 onion, minced
4 tbls olive oil
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbls dried sage
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Cut the smaller "half" of the squash, plus the sausage, into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss on a baking sheet with 2 tbls olive oil and the brown sugar, plus salt to season. Roast in a 375 oven until the squash is tender and beginning to caramelize, and the sausage is starting to crisp.

Cook and drain the pasta, preserving about 1 cup of liquid.

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, saute the onion in the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil. Finely chop the larger "half" of the squash in a food processor, and add it to the onion. Add the pasta water, sage, and salt to taste, bring to a simmer, and cover. Simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the squash starts to fall apart.

Add the heavy cream and the Parmesan, and use a food processor or immersion blender to puree everything until it forms a smooth sauce. Add the pasta, sausage, and roasted squash, and toss everything to cover with the sauce.

I also added a bit of cayenne, but I didn't add quite enough to notice (I have pretty tolerant tastebuds), but I also don't miss it.

The food dehydrator usually takes about 6 hours to do a 4-serving meal like this. To rehydrate pasta dishes, most recipes call to just cover the dehydrated food with water, bring to a boil, and cook until the ingredients are as tender as you want them. This allows for one-pot, no-prep meals. I can imagine myself reanimating this particular recipe on a chilly evening somewhere in Utah and thinking of New England autumn.