Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Sausage and Spinach

Recipe adapted from: 
Skinnytaste.com

Ingredients:

• 11 oz (4 links) Italian sausage
• 1 lb butternut squash, peeled and diced
• 1 tbsp light butter
• 1 lb any fun shaped pasta, I used trulli 
• 1/4 cup shallots, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh shaved Parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add butternut squash and cook until soft. Remove squash with a slotted spoon and place in a blender, blend until smooth.

Add pasta to the boiling water and cook according to package directions for al dente, reserving at least 1 cup of the pasta water before draining.

Meanwhile, in a large deep non-stick skillet, sauté sausage over medium heat until browned, breaking up with a spoon as it cooks. When cooked through, set aside on a plate.

Reduce heat to medium-low and melt the butter, sauté the shallots and garlic until soft and golden, about 5 - 6 minutes. Add pureed butternut squash, season with with salt and fresh cracked pepper and add a little of the reserved pasta water (I used about 1 cup) to thin out the sauce to your liking. Add baby spinach and stir in Parmesan cheese and seasoning. 

Toss in cooked pasta and sausage and mix until well coated.

Tips & Notes:

I thought this turned out really good. You can certainly customize this to your preferences, but I really enjoyed that the sauce didn't have cream in it, yet was still super creamy.  I served this with a salad and bread.