Nothin' Fancy (a guest appearance)

Wanting to stay more closely connected, my little sis Annie and I have started sharing recipes and little inspirations with each other... from her life in Minneapolis, MN and mine in Seattle, WA. Her last email to me was so delightful I thought I'd post it and try to start an ongoing conversation with her. Nothing else going on with Frank as my neighbor. Annie, you out there? Keep 'em coming...

1.12.2010

Well, my life has officially changed. After dinner last night I watched Julie and Julia. It is everything I love in one movie…I guess I’m not sure if that is a good thing or bad…My life can be summarized in a 123-minute movie? Either way, this is the pasta I enjoyed before my life changed. It was pretty tasty and used up the squash that has been hanging out in the vegetable bowl since before Christmas! I’m no Julia Child, but once and a while I give myself a pat-on-the-back after dinner.

Butternut Squash, Spinach and Lemon Pasta

Ingredients:
1 medium butternut squash, cubed

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T fresh rosemary

5 cups torn spinach

Juice of ½ lemon

Dried whole-wheat pasta

Fresh Parmesan

Peel, quarter and cube squash. Cook in olive oil in a large soup-pot over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, or until softened. Boil salted water for cooking pasta. Cook like you always do. Remove from pot and let sit in large bowl while sautéing onion. Add garlic and chopped rosemary (dried rosemary has nothing on fresh, so don’t even think about it) once onion has softened slightly. Add squash. Lastly, tear spinach into rough, edible pieces and mix into squash/onion mix. Squeeze the juice of ½ a lemon to finish and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until flavors have mixed, about 7 minutes. Drain pasta, top with squash topping and parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

PS-I actually thought that I wouldn’t want to use the entire squash in the pasta (duh! Can you ever have too much squash?!), so I reserved half of it and cooked it in a covered baking dish with real apple cider, a pinch salt and oil for 25 minutes. I ended up putting it in the mix with the squash that I’d sautéed. It was deliciously sweet.