Getting extra nutrition from pasta makes a dish like Sage Butternut Squash Pasta even yummier, especially when you have pasta night once a week!
Pasta night is probably my favorite night of the week. I am a total pasta nut and I love trying out new recipes. I also like to make sure the food I am eating provides health benefits too so I love the Barilla Better for You pastas. 
My favorite is definitely the Barilla Plus {hint: it is the yellow bow} penne pasta and my kids love it too. My kids don’t eat a lot of meat so I am always trying to make sure they get enough protein.
One box of Barilla Plus has about the same amount of protein as 11 eggs so I feel great about serving it each week. On my way home from work one evening, I stopped in our local Giant food store to pick up the ingredients I needed to make Sage Butternut Squash Pasta.
I love adding in fresh vegetables and herbs into my pasta dinner ideas and I was dying to make a fall vegetable pasta. Butternut squash is my favorite so it seemed like the obvious thing to start with.
Do you have pasta night each week? What is your favorite shape of pasta?
Visit Barilla on Facebook to find out more about their Better for You pasta options like whole grain and veggie in addition to my favorite, Barilla Plus.
If you like this Sage Butternut Squash Pasta, check out some more of the best pasta recipes:
Essential items for this easy vegetarian dinner:
- Baking sheet
- Large pot
- Sauté pan
- Pasta utensil
- Paper towels
- 1 box Barilla Plus Penne Pasta
- 1 medium Butternut Squash peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 3 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1/2 cup Pancetta diced
- 1 small Onion diced
- 2 cloves Garlic thinly sliced
- 12 tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 12 Sage Leaves
- 3/4 tsp Fresh Ground Pepper
- 1 cup Reserved Pasta Water
- 1 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese plus more for garnish if desired
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
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Toss butternut squash with 3 Tbsp of olive oil.
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Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and season with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Bake for 20 minutes or until fork tender.
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Cook pasta according to the package directions, subtracting 2 minutes from the al dente cooking time. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.
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Melt 1 Tbsp of butter in a large sauté pan. Add pancetta and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until crisp. Remove from pan and drain on a paper towel.
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Add onion and garlic to the pan and sauté for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and to pancetta.
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Melt remaining butter in sauté pan over medium heat. Add sage leaves and toast for 1-2 minutes or until crisp.
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Ladle in reserved pasta water; stir well and then simmer for 5 minutes. Grind in 1/2 tsp black pepper.
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Add pasta, squash, pancetta and onion mixture to the pan. Toss to coat and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan cheese.
Looks delicious! Pinned The pics are really nice.
Thanks so much! The pasta was really good.
WOW, that looks amazing… YUMMY
Thanks!
This looks great!! There’s no better combination than butternut squash and sage 🙂 and I LOVE pasta!
We love butternut squash with sage too! It just has such a great fall flavor to it.
This looks so good! I haven’t tried squash with my husband or kids in years–maybe this will win them over.
The squash is super yummy with the pasta. I hope they like it!
perfect colors and comfort foods for fall!!!
Thanks! It definitely is a good comfort food dish.
This looks absolutely delightful, and I’m not even a fan of butternut squash. I love how you incorporated the Pancetta and the Sage. Yummmmm!
Thanks! The pancetta goes great with the sage.
This looks simple and amazing!!!
Thank you so much.
This looks super delicious! I know I’m trying your recipe. I love Barilla pastas too & use them all the time. The whole wheat pasta is great.
We are a huge fan of Barilla. It just cooks so perfectly.
Whoa, that looks crazy delicious. I love how you incorporated the squash into a pasta dish! YUMMY!
I love trying to add in vegetables whenever I can.
I love pasta too and this recipe looks dreamy!! Yum!
Thanks so much!
That looks and sounds delicious, and your photos are perfection!
Thank you so much!
I have tried Penne but I think I would like this spruced up version better.
Thanks. I am rarely a fan of just plain pasta with spaghetti sauce.
Yum! I have seen a ton of delicious squash recipes around the internet lately. I am planning on trying them all.
Oh, I love using squash this time of year.
I love parmesan cheese and Barilla products are the best! Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
Barilla products really are the best!
YUMMM..this is my kind of dish and I love pasta… we still have some butternut squash so I know what will be in my future soon… Thanks for a great recipe, can’t wait to try it
Looking forward to hearing what you think about the dish.
I love the colors in this dish!! It looks so pretty for fall!! May have to give this a try this weekend!!
Thanks so much!
We don’t eat pasta every night, but we do eat it often. Pasta is such a great meal! This butternut dish looks great.
Haha…we try to limit it to once per week but, with two kids, it can be hard because they love pasta.
Looks totally delicious~I must make it!
Thanks so much!
Yum, this sounds delicious. This is the 4 the squash recipe in a row I’ve looked at tonight
You must really be craving squash 😉
So much butternut squash lately… I think it must be a sign and this looks divine.
I love butternut squash. It is so tasty.
I love pasta and this look delicious although I’d probably have to adapt slightly because I don’t like onions. Otherwise, yum!
Oh, you could take the onions out.
drooling on the keyboard at the moment. That looks amazing!
Thanks.
Yes! I really love the taste of butternut squash and pasta together!
I love butternut squash in pasta too.
This looks really delicious! 🙂
Thanks!
that looks delicious, I love the freshness of the ingredients you chose.
Thanks! I try to cook with fresh ingredients whenever I can.
It looks DELISH! I will have to try this one! Thanks for sharing.
I hope you like it!
Each fall I threaten to make a squash recipe but always shy away from it. This is the fall I will boldly squash forward.
Oh, get cooking! Squash is so delicious.
Your photos are absolutely gorgeous! I’m totally a pasta nut too. As soon as I warm up to squash, I’ll be sure to give your recipe a whirl. Thanks for staying awesome Shannah!
Thanks so much!
This looks amazing! I have pinned it to my Fall recipes board to try later. Thanks for sharing on the DBB.
I hope you enjoy this recipe!
No we don’t have a specific pasta night.. If we want pasta then its made if not something else is made.. but my favorite pasta is just Spaghetti…
I don’t know how we ended up into a pasta night routine. My family just loves pasta so it seemed natural.
Yum! What a great, hearty fall meal!
Thanks! It is definitely full of fall flavors.
That’s a very tasty looking dish!
Thanks! It went fast.