What was going to be our Sunday night supper turned into a tasty side dish when we were invited to dine at Susan and Jim’s house. Susan made what I thought was salmon but in fact it was Ironhead Trout! Very interesting since it looks like salmon, smells like salmon and tastes like salmon and I understand it is not as expensive as salmon. The salmon aka Ironhead Trout was delicious. My contribution is the Tasty Tidbits Tuesday recipe.
2 TBS Pine Nuts toasted
1/2 box of whole wheat Fusilli prepared per directions, keep warm
1 pkg of cleaned, peeled butternut squash (20 oz) cut into 3/4″ dice
1/2 red onion, peeled, 1/2″ dice (about 1+ 1/2 cups)
1 TBS basting oil (olive oil with herbs in it)
Salt and pepper
1 pkg chopped escarole (15 oz)
1 pkg or 4 oz of mini-cubes of pancetta
3 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 container or 13 oz of Alfredo sauce
2 TBS of shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Toss squash with onions in basting oil in large bowl, season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on baking sheet. Roast about 20 min, or until vegetables are well-caramelized and tender.
Blanch escarole 2-3 min in large pot of boiling salted water. Drain, and set aside.
Add pancetta to skillet on MEDIUM. Cook, stirring, 3-5 min, until crisp and brown. Remove from pan;drain on paper towels. Return to pan. Add garlic. Cook, stirring 1-2 min, until tender
Add wine. Cook, stirring to loosen browned bits on bottom of pan. Simmer about 4 min, until liquids are reduced by half. Stir in alfredo sauce.
Bring to simmer; add escarole and black pepper to taste. Stir to blend. Add pasta; toss until well-combined. Stir in squash and onions, then pine nuts. Top with cheese.
Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine
What I learned: I couldn’t find any Alfredo sauce so I used something called Parmesan Cheese sauce and it was fine. My first thoughts were that there were too many steps and too many bowls and pots. There was a large pot to blanch the escarole and a large bowl of ice water to shock it. Another large bowl for tossing the squash and onions. A baking sheet to caramalize the veggies and a large skillet to saute the pancetta. I had meant to “toast” the pine nuts in the same skillet but forgot and if I had had a toaster oven, I might have used that but I didn’t. The array of utensils and containers made for a large wash-up before the meal.
Other than the prepping, the pasta was DELICIOUS as I had hoped and expected it would. I don’t think I have ever gotten a bad recipe from the Wegman’s MENU magazine.
Butternut Squash cubed
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