Penne with Butternut Squash, Asparagus and Portobello Mushrooms with dill pesto on side

Hmm.... the title pretty much sums up whatever this dish packs. A very good one to make on special occasions, I would say a romantic occasion. This recipe won't have too much salt or pepper in it. Just enough to enhance the flavours of the contents in the dish. It is very delicate on the pallet, so if you are a person who likes some taste buds kickn' action, this wont do any magic for you. However, if you can appreciate the subtle flavours of vegetables and pasta, this will be a hit with you. If you want to make something different and rocking, go ahead and try it out. 

Prep time: 20 mins [includes chop time]

Cook time:  45 mins

Ingredients:

1. Penne Pasta - 1/2 the box [use the whole grain one if possible]
2. Butternut Squash -  3/4 cup, cubed in to bite size pieces
3. Asparagus -  1/2 cup, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4. Baby Portobello Mushrooms -  1/2 cup cut into quarters [slice each mushroom into 4 pieces]
5. Garlic - 3 pods grated/minced or 1 tsp paste
6. Dry Basil - 1/2 tsp [if you get fresh, use 1 tsp finely chopped]
7. Salt - 1 tsp for cooking pasta + a pinch or two for baking and 3/4 to 1 tsp for the recipe.
8. Ground black pepper - a pinch or two for baking tsp for baking + 1/2 tsp for recipe
9. Parmesan Cheese - 1/4 cup
10. Water - Enough to boil pasta, follow instructions on the box
11. Olive Oil - 2 - 3 tsp

Method: 

• Preheat the oven to 475F or 245C. In a bowl, mix cubed butternut squash, salt pepper and 1 tsp of olive oil till they coat the pieces well.
• Now lay these pieces on a baking tray and bake it for 15 to 20 minutes or till the squash softens enough to let a fork through without much resistance. Remove from oven and keep aside.
• In the mean while cook penne pasta according to instructions on the box.
• Heat oil in a big pot which can hold all the above ingredients on medium flame.
• Add garlic and dry basil and saute for a few seconds.
• Add Mushrooms, saute for a few seconds, add a pinch of salt mix in well, close the lid and let it sweat for a minute.
• Add Asparagus now and saute for a few seconds.
• Add the roasted butternut squash, mix in well and add cooked pasta to this.
• Now Add enough slat and pepper to enhance the flavours  and mix all the ingredients to get them well coated wit salt and pepper.
• Pasta is ready to be served 

Dill Pesto: A pesto is more like an Italian chutney... easy to make a yummy to eat. You can simply make a pesto and mix it to cooked hot pasta, it is a recipe by itself. Pesto is generally made with pine nuts, they are not available everywhere, even if they are, they come very expensive. if you want to use pine nuts, go ahead and use them instead of cashew. Make sure you dry roast them before you make pesto. .  The pesto I made was with dill and capers. Capers in Hindi is kabra, you can see them in Punjabi pickles and I have heard they are used in Tamilnadu pickles as well. Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Dill -  a handful

Capers - 1/2 tsp(optional)

Cashew nuts - 1/2cup

Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1/4 cup

Lemon Juice - 1 tsp

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Method:

In a food processor, make a powder of cashew nuts. then add Dill, capers salt and pepper, run them all for 30 seconds. Now slowly keep adding the oil till you get a nice silky paste. You may not use up all the oil you take.

Serving Suggestions:

This is a good entree, you can serve a salad with sun-dried tomato dressing. This will compliment the flavours of the pasta.

Sprinkle some more Parmesan cheese on top to make it more enticing.

To make a complete Menu, you can make a soup or salad for starters. Soup suggestion would be Spinach, Zucchini and Lemon with Roasted Chiabatta Bread and herbed Extra Virgin Olive oil. To end it with a sweet, you may bake a cannoli cake to make the whole theme Itlaian.

Tips:

Change the ingredients from, butternut squash, asparagus and mushroom to grape tomatoes or regular tomatoes chopped into bite size, chopped green bell peppers and chopped red onion. Saute all these one after the other and instead of Black pepper add a little red chilly powder. This will make the dish more easy and faster to cook and is an entirely new recipe... Don't have to bake a thing here... but the taste is great. [use the rest of the ingredients and follow the method except baking]