Your email address is required to begin the subscription process. We will use it for customer service and other communications from Milk Street. You can unsubscribe from receiving our emails at any time.
Rigatoni with Tomato, Butternut and Red Pepper Puree
This recipe is free for a limited time. 12 WEEKS FOR $1 TO ACCESS EVERY MILK STREET RECIPE. Learn More.
Milk Street Facebook Community member James Adcock of Bellevue, Washington makes a pureed tomato pasta sauce that’s rich and velvety even without cream. He blends sautéed onion, canned whole tomatoes, steamed butternut squash and roasted and peeled red bell peppers until smooth, then simmers the sauce to bring the flavors together. Our version, perfect for a weeknight, cooks the squash with the tomatoes and uses store-bought roasted peppers. We think the sauce is a great match for tube-shaped, ridged pastas such as rigatoni, ziti rigati or penne rigate, but it also is good on cheese ravioli or tortellini.
4-6
Servings
Tip
Don’t bother chopping the roasted peppers since they’re going into the blender for pureeing. And don’t worry if the squash begins to fall apart as it cooks because it, too, will be blended.
40 minutes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
½ medium yellow onion, chopped
Kosher salt and ground white pepper
14 ounces peeled and seeded butternut squash, cut into 1-inch chunks (about 2½ cups)
14½ ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
1 cup drained roasted red peppers
1 pound rigatoni, ziti rigati or penne rigate pasta
½ cup lightly packed fresh basil, roughly chopped
Finely grated Parmesan cheese, to serve
Ingredients
-
2
tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
-
½
medium yellow onion, chopped
-
Kosher salt and ground white pepper
-
14
ounces peeled and seeded butternut squash, cut into 1-inch chunks (about 2½ cups)
-
14½
ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
-
1
-
1
pound rigatoni, ziti rigati or penne rigate pasta
-
½
cup lightly packed fresh basil, roughly chopped
-
Finely grated Parmesan cheese, to serve
Directions
-
01In a 12-inch skillet over medium-high, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion and ½ teaspoon salt, then cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 2 to 4 minutes. Add the squash, tomatoes with juices, ½ cup water and ¼ teaspoon white pepper. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until a skewer inserted into the squash meets no resistance, about 20 minutes.
-
02Off heat, stir in the roasted peppers and let cool, uncovered, for about 5 minutes. Transfer the tomato-squash mixture to a blender. Blend until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping the blender as needed.
-
03In a large pot, bring 4 quarts water to a boil. Stir in the pasta and 1 tablespoon salt, then cook, stirring occasionally, until just shy of al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water, then drain and return the pasta to the pot. Add the puree and ¼ cup reserved water, then cook over medium, stirring constantly and adding more reserved water as needed, until the pasta is al dente and the sauce clings to the noodles, 2 to 3 minutes. Off heat, taste and season with salt and white pepper, then stir in the basil. Serve sprinkled with Parmesan.
Shop the Milk Street Store
Reviews
Become A Subscriber To Rate and Review All Our Recipes.
Please Log in or join today for $1.
Great vegetarian dish, lovely taste, although my texture was off, a bit too much purée to pasta ratio. Will need to experiment with the amount of butternut, or leave some pieces in cubed form next time. Recommend this dish. If not needing vegetarian, some sprinkled crisped pancetta bits would add another level of deliciousness.