Bucatini with butternut squash, bacon and sage

6 min read

This bucatini with butternut squash, bacon and sage is a dish that is easy to whip up with very little effort. Easy maybe, but time is a luxury you should factor in: it's a lot better if you take your time to cook it at a slower pace.

Rasher than most

This is not one of the recipes learned by my father on his travels nor me on mine — though obviously influenced by recipes using zucca violina from Emilia Romagna I learned from my father and friends. One of the reasons it came into being was to avoid wasting bacon.

I created this recipe to use bacon that would otherwise go to waste. However, it's great with lardons or speck if you prefer a slightly more salubrious version. Nonetheless, I still think that smoked bacon is the best version, especially in the way it cooks soft during the last phase.

I love bacon, but somehow I don't consume it quickly enough. I wish I could say that that it was for healthy eating reasons but it's actually about time. I confess that my main passion for bacon is in the form of those hearty, heart-breaking breakfasts we all aren't supposed to eat anymore. Fortunately (I guess) I seldom get time to cook those during the week (nor often of a weekend). So, feeling guilty that good bacon might go into the composter when it gets that tinge of green, I evolved this one to use bacon before that happens. And, it freezes well if you follow the instructions below.

The reason it seems timely is that I've received a lot of lovely messages from people who have liked the Italian recipes I've posted without tomatoes because of their passion for Italian food but an intolerance to tomatoes. And, as we head into a Northern Hemisphere spring this seems like the last opportunity to season-match some fresh traditionally autumnal sage. "April is the cruelest month" according to T. S. Eliot, but the cherry blossom is already coming into bloom in the microclimate of my square...

FYI, not DUI

The white wine in this recipe really is a full-blown ingredient and it also needs to be in these fairly generous quantities. If you have any misguided fears about ending up under the influence, there are only so many times that I can explain that all the alcohol cooks off (and it doesn't taste like wine). If you're that worried about being "triggered", I suggest cooking something else because it's not this recipe without it.

The quantities in this recipe will serve 2 to 4 diners, depending on your appetite and side dishes. Scale up proportionally as needed. Please note that I'm cooking it in slightly different proportions in the images.

I'm choosing to do it with bucatini because, well, it's probably my favourite pasta. But you can cook it with a range of others that work well. My advice would be to avoid very slender pastas such as spaghetti, but other that, there's no real "rule". Even pastas I find silly, such as farfalle, work well with this dish.

If you wish to make it for freezing, do not add the cream in the final stages before allowing it to cool and freezing. Cook the cream in once you have defrosted the sauce and are reheating it before adding the pasta.

3 top tips to get this recipe right:

There is a daft tendency (in the UK at least) to undercook butternut squash. If it tasted good raw we'd use it in salads. So ensure you simmer the sauce long enough that the butternut squash is fully cooked and tender without becoming "squishy"

Avoid the temptation to overdo the cream. The cream is here to absorb all those lovely vegetal and herbal flavours and to coat the pasta and, well, to give it a little creaminess. But cream overkill results in a heavy, richness at odds with what is at the heart of this dish. And, keep an eye on it: make sure it never boils or simmers too vigorously. So, one of those dishes where you need to be present while it's cooking into the sauce

Don't cut the butternut squash too small. You don't want this to turn into a butternut soup. This is one of the reasons I favour short batons over little squares. Yep, it needs to be fully cooked and tender. But, it also needs to be present with a texture

Shopping list

for the bucatini with butternut squash, bacon and sage

Approx. 80 to 90g (dried) bucatini per diner; or equivalent in other pastas
Approx. 5 to 6 rashers of smoked back bacon; sliced across the rasher; rind and fat on
½ a large butternut squash; peeled and cut into small batons or large cubes
A generous clutch of fresh sage; washed, leaves plucked from stems
3 cloves of smoked garlic, roughly chopped (normal garlic is fine too)
6 tbspns virgin olive oil
500ml chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
6 or 7 echalion shallots i.e. scallions (or other shallots), peeled and finely sliced
A generous clutch of curly leaf parsley; finely chopped
2tbspns Colatura di Alici (or Worcestershire sauce)
300ml dry white wine
60ml single cream
salt and pepper to taste
A grated hard cheese such as Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano (optional)

for the salad

I've gone for a mellow salad of lamb's lettuce with cucumber and a green olive, parsley and spring onion tapenade dressing. But any salad of choice will work as long as it's not too "spiky" or heavily spiced.

Cooking Method

the bucatini with butternut squash, bacon and sage

In a large pot or deep pan with a lid, heat a little of the oil on a medium heat. Add the bacon, seasoning with a little salt and pepper. Once sealed, but not crisped, remove with a sieve spoon, leaving the juices in the pot
Add the remainder of the oil. Once hot, add the shallots. When they soften slightly, add the garlic and stir in. After barely a minute i.e. before the garlic can burn, add half of the wine and simmer on a low-medium heat until the shallots soften
Add the chopped parsley and stir in, followed by the sage leaves. When the sage releases its aroma, add the butternut squash, the Colatura di Alici and the remainder of the wine. Stir so that he squash is coated in the juices. Gently pour in approx. half of the stock (you want that the butternut squash is almost submerged). Increase the heat and simmer vigorously for 3mins
Reduce to a low-medium heat. Cover and simmer for at least 20mins, stirring occasionally. If the liquid in the pan reduces too quickly, add more stock (or water when you've used all the stock). You want the butternut squash cooked optimally and the liquid to reduce— this will take another 30 to 40mins, depending on the heat
When butternut squash nears optimal state, add the bacon back into the pan and stir in. Season with a little more black pepper (and salt if necessary). Cover and simmer on a low heat for another 5 to 6mins, removing the lid if you need to further reduce and thicken the sauce
Pour in the cream and stir in. Simmer on a low heat, ensuring it never boils, gently stirring as is reduces
Add your perfectly timed cooked and drained pasta into the pan, turning to ensure it's fully coated in the sauce
Plate and serve immediately with the simple salad, and with the grated aged hard cheese as an optional at-table addition

Alternatives

This dish is easily turned vegan if you use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, don't add the anchovy sauce, and leave out the cream and cheese. Just as I created it to not waste bacon, so too have I cooked it to make use of butternut squash at risk of getting past its best (which fortunately takes a long time). Yes, of course you can try such things as "plant-based cream" (Elmlea, anyone?). Apparently some work well, but I can't give a "witness statement" since I've never tried. My favourite vegan version is to simply reduce the sauce, add the pasta and then throw in crushed walnuts just long enough to heat them (they become bitter if cooked) and to garnish with additional finely chopped fresh parley. It's a fresher version and I love it in the summer more than this version.

An alternative route is to use tempeh "bacon", but if you do so, add this only in the last few minutes of cooking, otherwise it turns to sludge.

The vegetarian version is pretty much the same, except you do add the cream and garnish with a relevant veggie hard cheese.

Sorry, never tried a pescatarian version: I think we would have more fish recipes with sage if that combination worked... Think about it.

Pairings

I usually default to a "butch white" with this dish, though it has also been great with softer reds such as Domaine du Clos des Fées Les Sorcières Côtes du Roussillon Rouge .

However, sticking with my gut feeling for those sun-drenched thuggish whites, I found the best match recently in a Kelbi Catarratto Terre Siciliane that I think even Karel might countenance.