In an attempt to get my family to eat squash other than baked, pumpkin pie style, I decided to experiment with hard squashes.  I can eat any hard squash roasted right out of the oven, scooped with a spoon right from the shell and love summer squashes, too.  One of my favorite breakfast dishes is a yellow squash, sausage, and cream cheese omelette.  I ate one almost every day when I lived low-carb. 

It’s tricky with these fellas, though.  I can sneak hard squash or sweet potatoes, another of their least favorites, into stir fry if I don’t overcook them, and I made a lot of zucchini brownies last summer before the beetles wiped out my zucchini patch, but I’m always trying to think up new ways to get them to eat squashes since they are so nutritious.   I decided to try stuffing pasta with a cheese and butternut filling.  They all liked it, but my younger son said it would be better without the squash. lol

Ingredients:

Pasta Dough:

4 c. all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

2 T olive oil

1/4 tsp. salt

Egg yolk, beaten, for sealing edges of agnolotti

Filling:

1 c. ricotta cheese

1 c. butternut squash, roasted, pureed

1/2 c. Romano cheese, grated

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Sauce:

4 T butter

1/2 c. slivered almonds

1/2 c. parmesan or Romano cheese

2 T extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

Pinch of salt

Method:

Take all pasta dough ingredients, except for the beaten egg yolk, and blend in a food processor until a dough is formed.

Cover and chill the dough for one hour. 

For the filling, combine all ingredients, mixing well.

To form pasta:

Cut in two and keep half covered and chilled while you work the other half.  Rolling from the center out, work the dough into a thin sheet.  Cut with a biscuit cutter with a fluted edge into circles.  Place approximately 3/4 of a teaspoon of filling in the center of each dough round.  Brush the edges with yolk, fold over and seal.  Place on a surface dusted with flour until ready to cook.  Repeat with remaining dough.

Bring a large stock pot of water to a boil.  Add a tablespoon of salt.  Cook the pasta until they rise to the surface, then an additional 3 to 5 minutes, reducing the heat to a less vigorous boil.  While pasta cooks, heat oil and butter in a large saute pan for the sauce.  Add garlic and cook just until it turns tan.  Add almonds and salt.   Toss in the garlic sauce.  When the pasta is cooked, use a slotted spoon to remove from them from the water and immediately place in the saute pan with the sauce.  Toss pasta in the sauce.  Plate and sprinkle with grated cheese.