Skillet Butternut Squash, Sausage and Penne Pasta
This creamy, divine butternut squash, sausage and penne pasta is made start to finish in ONE skillet. This recipe is so easy and delicious.
Yep, that’s right. This creamy, divine butternut squash and penne pasta is made start to finish in one skillet. Which makes me want to weep because I love skillet meals just so, so much.
Avoiding having to clean that extra pasta boiling pot is reason for some serious heel clicks (a dangerous feat for one as unathletic and uncoordinated as I).
And just so you know how I really feel about this recipe, I had to make a concerted effort not to type that entire second sentence in all CAPS just to emphasize how seriously serious (in a good way) this is.
I’ve had a love affair with the butternut squash and pasta combo for forever. Add in lean chicken sausage, spinach and a smattering of other ingredients and this is quite possibly the only thing I want to eat all weekend.
The inspiration came from several other one-skillet pasta meals that I love, and the fact that the butternut squash lends a beautiful creaminess to the made-by-itself-sauce without pouring in quarts of heavy cream (sidenote: I have nothing against heavy cream, trust me, I’m just trying to avoid it for a day or two) is another reason to leap for joy.
This is all sorts of comfort wrapped up in one skillet. And did I mention? You’ll only have one little skillet to wash up. That’s pretty sweet considering you are getting one of the most fab meals of January out of the deal.
Long live butternut squash. In pasta. With sausage. And spinach. And cheese.
What to Serve With This
- Steamed vegetable or this Perfect Roasted Asparagus
- Simple green salad or this Marinated Caprese Salad
- Sliced Cheese
One Year Ago: Baked Tilapia with Ginger and Cilantro
Two Years Ago: Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake
Three Years Ago: Chicken Cordon Bleu Bread Bowls
Skillet Butternut Squash and Penne Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 large shallot, or 1/4 cup minced yellow or white onion
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
- 1 pound chicken sausage, (if links, remove the casing)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 5 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 12 ounces penne pasta
- 3 cups peeled and diced butternut squash
- 3 cups coarsely chopped fresh baby spinach
- 2 large sage leaves, torn into small pieces, or 1/4 teaspoon dried, more or less to taste
- 1 cup shredded or cubed fontina or mozzarella cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Freshly grated Parmesan for serving, if desired
Instructions
- In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet, combine the shallot, garlic, sausage, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, breaking up the meat into small pieces, and cooking until the sausage is cooked through, 5-7 minutes. Scrape the mixture to a plate and return the skillet back to the heat.
- Add the chicken broth and pasta and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking and the pasta clumping together. Stir in the squash and simmer 5-7 minutes longer until the squash and pasta are both tender. As the squash breaks down, it will help bring a creaminess to the sauce and pasta so add more liquid, if necessary, while cooking if the mixture seems dry.
- Stir in the spinach and sage and cook for 1-2 minutes until the spinach is wilted. Add the sausage/shallot mixture back to the skillet and stir in the fontina or mozzarella cheese and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Off the heat, cover the skillet with a lid or foil and let the pasta sit for 5-10 minutes. Give it a good stir and serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
Love it! We have lots of leftovers – am I able to freeze this?
The pasta might be a bit softer out of the freezer, but it’s worth a try.
Ok I’ve made this quite a few times and we love it. I’ve made a few changes though. I find as that following the recipe the pasta over cooks and the butternut doesn’t cook . I just switched the two and found much better results
Do you use Italian chicken sausage for this? Or another flavor?
I’ve used a variety of different chicken sausage flavors – all have been delicious.
Delicious! Even my pickiest eater enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it.
So I knew going in that I didn’t have sausage, but added extra sage at the beginning to my chicken thigh pieces. Everything was going well. Then I went to add the broth, only had 4c. No problem, just put a little less pasta in. Then I went to add my precut butternut squash (the whole reason I planned this recipe!) and it was MOLDY right out the package. What else can I improvise here?! The whole point is that the squash gets it creamy! Well first I looked for canned pumpkin. Didn’t have any. Then I dug through the freezer, panicking a bit. Only thing I found that might remotely work was a small bag of riced cauliflower. So I threw it in. It worked! Added a little cream cheese at the end, but basically the cauliflower worked. Sounds like from others experience this is a pretty forgiving recipe if you just stick with it. The result was pretty good,
Delicious!! We have made this a couple of times and I do like to steam the squash for a few minutes to make sure it softens enough. Also, tonight I didn’t have mozzarella cheese so I used monterey jack cheese and we loved it! My 2 year-old gobbled it up and even had seconds. Thanks, Mel!
This was very yummy. I used hot Italian turkey sausage, so I didn’t need to add any salt, pepper, or sage. I also roasted the squash and stirred it in with the meat at the end instead of cooking it with the noodles. I loved the textures and flavors.
This is a regular go-to in my house!
Here’s what I do differently, since there are only 2 of us eating it –
I use a 12″ cast iron skillet. I begin to cook 1/2 a pound of pork sausage & then add in the cubed butternut squash (about 2 cups maybe) so that they get a nice caramelized browning on them to richen the flavor. Once that’s cooked, I do NOT remove anything from the skillet. I do garlic (I like a lot) & go ahead & add the sage (I use dried). I do 3 cups of broth & 6oz (or half a standard box) of dry pasta (tonight I used farfalle but it’s generally whatever I have on hand). At the end, I add way more spinach then what she calls for because we are a spinach loving family & I toss in herbed goat cheese along with the parm.
Comes out perfect every time! These flavors together are so unexpectedly delicious.
Super yummy and quick skillet meal! We’ve made it in the past and made it for dinner last night with adjustments that I thought I’d share. We accumulated a bunch of pumpkins that I wanted to use. I was a little uncertain about cooking time so I cooked the pumpkin in the liquid before adding the pasta. We also used about 6 c of spinach and leftover pork sausage. It needs a large skillet but was delicious and easy. Great way to use up pumpkin too!
Just not sure how the squash is supposed to cook in like 7 minutes? I followed the recipe to the letter and the squash was still raw and rock hard. I ended up having to take it out and cook it separately, which took a whole lot of extra time, and by the time the squash was ready, the pasta was mush. Just not very good. The flavours were okay, but nothing special.
This is delicious and will be a repeat at our house. The only changes I made were using pork sausage(just because) and I used Italian blend cheese as it’s what was in the frig.
Thanks for the recipe!
This was fantastic!! I was really skeptical about using just chicken broth, butternut squash and cheese to create some kind of sauce in the end … But this was absolutely perfect. Highly recommend, super easy, quick and the perfect warm and filling dinner for these cool fall nights.
We loved this. My husband won’t eat sausage, ground turkey or chicken so I used ground beef. That was my only change and it was delicious. I am making this often.
I love this recipe and make it often. Thanks!
Could you use frozen butternut squash? If so, what would you do differently in the steps? Thanks!
Yes, I think you can use frozen – add a few minutes on to the cooking time and see how that goes.
Just made this recipe and it’s absolutely awful. I don’t know what size pan this would actually fit in, as it certainly didn’t fit in a 12 inch wide, 3 inch deep pan. Even if scaled back, there’s almost twice as much broth as needed, the cooking time for the pasta is too long (unless you like mushy pasta), and I’m not sure what kind of sauce cheese and broth alone is supposed to make. Complete waste of my groceries.
Sorry this didn’t work out for you. I know the frustration of taking the time to make a recipe and not have it turn out!
Sadly, this recipe did not work for me. My instinct told me that squash, even diced into very small pieces, would not cook through in 7 minutes. I should have listened! I followed the recipe faithfully, but ended up having to add a lot of cook time, waiting for the squash to soften. By the time it was tender, the pasta has disintegrated and it was mushy and gross. Plus, I added a little broth (about 1/2 cup) to try to speed the process along (as recommended in the recipe!!) and it messed up the ratios. I ended up with soup, with hard pieces of squash and disintegrated pasta floating in it. It tasted pretty good but the textures were all wrong. Next time I will DEFINITELY PRECOOK the squash and cut down on the broth.
I’ve made this recipe multiple times for my family and it’s always a hit. Although, I use pork sausage instead. I keep coming back to it, as it’s simple to make and delicious. I’m making it again tonight!
I used chicken that had been salt and peppered instead of sausage. Also covered the squash with olive oil salt and pepper and roasted it partially before adding it to the pasta to finish cooking. The flavors were great!
When u say 12 oz of penne, do u mean a box or 1.5 cups of pasta?
I mean 12 ounces by weight (not sure how many cups that is).
I found some Chicken Feta Spinach Sausage that was perfect with this. This has become a family favorite.
Thanks!!
I’ve probably made more than 50% of your recipes (I’m a little obsessed) and this is one of my new favorites. I love the unique flavors. It’s unlike any of my other go-to meals. Yum!
Thanks, Carissa!
Made this tonight. Really tasty! I added some lemon juice at the end and it really shined.
Thank you.
Hey Mel! I’m a little confused on the chicken sausage. What kind do you use?
The kind you cook and crumble…it doesn’t have to be chicken sausage, though. You can use whatever kind of ground sausage you prefer.
This was great! I used ground turkey and an italian sausage seasoning recipe to prep the turkey. I used mozzarella… Probably 1.5 cups. I used whole grain elbow noodles and added some chicken stock while cooking. Next time I may double the spinach! Thanks for the recipe. It was delish!