This Creamy Pasta Is Packed with Anti-Inflammatory Ingredients

Once the temperature drops, I just want to cozy up with winter squash in all its forms, particularly this Butternut Squash Pasta. It finds its way onto my weekly rotation because it’s perfect for using up leftover squash. 

I live in a household of two people (and only one of us likes leftovers), so often, a whole butternut squash is good for a couple of dinners. I’m big into meal prepping, so I’ll usually cut up and roast the entire squash at the beginning of the week and use it to make several dishes over the following days. 

I’m also a big fan of anything that saves time, so I like to buy a package or two of pre-cut and peeled squash at the grocery store to roast at the beginning of the week. Having all of that roasted squash in my fridge means this recipe becomes a 15-minute meal, perfect for those busy nights when I feel like I don’t have time to cook. 

As a vegetarian, I’m no stranger to pasta for dinner. Most vegetarians can probably tell you the woes of being stuck with buttered noodles or bland jarred pasta sauce. But I love this recipe because it has more to offer than just carbs, and it’s anything but boring. 

Beyond the sweet, earthy flavor of the squash, this recipe calls for a vegetarian’s best friend—miso. With a deeply savory flavor usually associated with meat and other animal products, miso brings a ton of flavor to the party. Just a dab plays a supporting role in the background of sauces, soups, marinades and more. And those earthy, savory flavors in miso are a match made in heaven for the big fall flavors of butternut squash, sage and thyme in this recipe. 

The other secret ingredient in this recipe is pasta water. Italian grandmas and professional chefs alike will tell you that this is the single most important ingredient when it comes to serving up a perfect plate of pasta. When you boil pasta, it releases starch into the water. When you add a splash of pasta cooking water to the pan along with pasta and the rest of the sauce ingredients, this starch-thickened water helps to create that silky consistency. 

Beyond just adding body and that mouth-coating texture, the starch also binds with fat to create a truly special sauce that tastes impossibly creamy and perfectly coats the pasta. In this recipe, that fat comes in the form of the oil in the blended squash mixture, and my personal favorite: Parmesan cheese. If you want to make this recipe vegan, you could omit the Parmesan and just mix the pasta water with the butternut squash puree. However, I’d recommend adding in about a tablespoon of your favorite vegan butter to compensate. 

I hope I’ve convinced you how delicious this pasta is by now, but it’s incredibly nutritious too. One cup of butternut squash packs nearly 100% of your daily value of vitamin A, and between 40% and 50% of your daily needs of vitamin C. And since we’re in the midst of cold and flu season, I can’t get enough immune-supporting nutrients, a category which includes those vitamins. Plus, vitamin A has potent anti-inflammatory properties. And, when paired with whole-wheat pasta, this recipe packs in a quarter of your daily recommended fiber intake, which is crucial for gut health and helping you feel full and satisfied. Dig in!