Megan/Calan Birthday Stuff Vegetable Pasta

By Dad

This is a combination of Cal's Birthday Stuff and Megan's Birthday Stuff. It's basically a pasta dish with almost any vegetables you'd like to add. The ones below are suggested. It uses rotini or fusilli (spiral) pasta and can be made healthier by using vegetable fuscilli pasta. The recipe is a bit "fluid." If you want different vegetables use them; with you want to omit vegetables, go ahead; if you want more or less liquid then use more or less. If you don't want to add the lemon juice for a bit of acid, don't. It tastes pretty good no matter what you do.

Dinner
Prep Time: 45 min
Cook Time: 15 min
Total Time: 60 min
Ingredients
  • 1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
  • 2 Cups Butternut Squash, Cubed And Roasted
  • 1 Lb. Sausage Pick Your Favorite: Smoked, Apple, Pineapple Any Will Do, Really
  • 2 To 4 Teaspoons Of Jarred Garlic (About 2 To 4 Cloves Of Minced Garlic).
  • 1 Tsp Jarred Ginger Or To Taste. You Can Use 1 Tsp Powdered Ginger If You Don't Have Jarred Ginger.
  • One Package Of Fuscilli Or Rotini Pasta.
  • 2 Medium Carrots, Sliced Thin Or Cubed As Desired
  • 1/2 Cup Snow Peas
  • 1 Parsnip
  • 1 Small Head Of Broccoli
  • 1 Package Button Mushrooms, Chopped
  • 1 Red Bell Pepper (But Any Bell Pepper Will Do)
  • 1 Zucchini
  • 1 Cup Baby Corn
  • 1 Cup Chicken Broth
  • 1 Cup Of Cream (Or More If A "Looser" Sauce Is Preferred).
  • 1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice (If Desired).
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Chop the butternut squash into small cubes and put it on an aluminum foil-lined cooking pan drizzled with olive oil. Salt and pepper the squash and put if in the oven while chopping the vegetables. Remove when the squash is fork tender.
  3. In a big stock pan, start the water to boil for the pasta. Follow the directions for boiling the pasta on the packaging.
  4. Chop or dice all vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
  5. Chop the sausage into bite-sized pieces. Sauté in a large pan with a tablespoon of oil.
  6. Add chopped onion, garlic and ginger to the sausage. Sauté them with the sausage until the onions are translucent.
  7. Add the hard vegetables to the pan. (Examples are: carrots, parsnips, broccoli, peppers, etc)
  8. Add chicken stock. Cover the pan and simmer until vegetables are almost fork tender.
  9. Add the rest of the vegetables and the butternut squash. Cook until heated through.
  10. Add the pasta to the pan. Turn off the heat and add the cream.
  11. Add lemon juice if desired.
  12. Serve with bread. Enjoy!
Back