Two simple seasonal plates - Day 2.

Great news.  I remembered to make a vegetable for us all to eat tonight.  My garden is still offering a small nightly crop in this last gasp of summer and Bar and I headed out to harvest some purple beans, green beans, sungold tomatoes, and onions to toss in with our lettuce that came yesterday.  There's nothing quite like shopping locally in your own back yard.  There's also nothing quite like squabbling with a two year old about leaving enough veggies to actually toss into the salad.  Bar has treated my garden for most of the summer as a collection of personal snacking bushes.  I don't mind so much and we've shared more than one breakfast at 7:45 AM of dew-soaked vegetables.  And, though autumn is my favorite of all the seasons, I feel a little sad this year seeing my gardens reach the end of their productive time and start to die back.

As much as our salad tonight called forth summertime, I offered up a decidedly fall main course in the form of fresh pappardelle with a butternut squash sauce.  I drizzled it with sage (from my garden) brown butter.  I also broiled a mixture of hot and sweet sausages that I had frozen from when the Italian specialty market had a $3.99/lb sale.  I had everything needed for dinner in the house already except for the fresh pasta, so Bar and I wandered down to the Italian market late this afternoon. I went in for pasta, I came out with pasta and cannoli.  That kind of thing happens a lot when you're me.  The recipe was based, of course, on another of Mark Bittman's from How to Cook Everything.  The following is actually his recipe for butternut squash pansotti, a "simply" folded stuffed pasta.  For me, though it may be simple, there aren't enough hours in the day for me to put together enough lovely packets of pasta with just the right amount of filling to feed my hungry bunch.  So, I dumped the filling right on top of the pasta, drizzled with the sage brown butter and served.

Pappardelle with Butternut Squash Sauce
1 large cooked butternut squash, I throw the entire squash on a baking sheet and bake for an hour or so at 375 degrees or until it can be easily pierced with a knife, then halve it, scoop out the seeds, and then peel the skin off the flesh and voila, cooked squash
2 eggs
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I generally use something closer to a cup)

Fall in a bowl.  I meant to take a picture of the salad,
but was already eating it by the time I remembered.

1 lb fresh pappardelle, or any pasta you like

1.  Puree the squash; I use a food processor.  Combine it in a bowl with eggs, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and sugar and stir until it's well mixed.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Meanwhile, put the squash sauce in a medium saucepan and set it over low heat on the stove, stirring occasionally.  You want it to just heat through.  When the water is boiling, add the pasta and boil until it's cooked to al dente; it won't take long if you're using fresh pasta.  Drain.
3. Place servings of pasta in individual bowls, top with large dollops of warm squash sauce, drizzle with sage brown butter and serve.