Autumn Alfredo, A Homemade Fall Pasta

This delicious Autumn Alfredo is the perfect pasta for colored leaves and pumpkin patches.  It’s bound to put you in the mood for fall.

A Teaching Moment

My older two boys love books, they are particularly fond of an Usborne book about food.  I’m so proud.

The book is actually called My First Reference Book About Food. If that isn’t a great title I don’t know what is.  In the book, there is a page dedicated to pasta, and Phelps (my oldest) was especially excited about the pasta roller.  He loves gadgets and gizmos (in fact he has 20 thingamicbobs).

How could I turn down the opportunity to teach my foodie doodies about food?  So we made pasta.

Here is what I love about homemade pasta

1.  You can add other things to the pasta (I often add some basil or thyme).
2. It doesn’t have to be perfect (I believe the term is rustic)
3. It is quite entertaining

Here is what I hate about homemade pasta

1.  I eat it all and feel fat

That’s it.  Darn my genetics.

What to make?

So on a chilly October day what do you eat with your fresh pasta?

Not a tomato sauce, pesto is to Springy (made up word), and olive oil too simple.  How about a little something from the garden?  We did just empty it and fill last years bed with tulips for my wife’s cut flower farm (like 1000 of them are going in).   Delicata squash sauce it is then.

Now if you haven’t had a Delicata then let’s talk about them really quick, but first a funny story, well two.  Rex, my second, looooovvvveeees delicata squash.  He was the culprit for picking every squash before the frost because he wanted some “candeeee squash”.   He would eat a whole one by himself with a little butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon (I guess a lot of things get really good if you add those three to them).

The second story is that we didn’t plant a delicata squash this year, we actually planted a spaghetti squash, but unbeknownst to us our local greenhouse mislabeled some squash and we ended up with a nice healthy delicata plant.  No complaints here.

Delicata is Italian for delicate.  The squash lives up to its name.   The skin is edible (in fact delicatas are in the same species as our summer squash are).  They also have a very smooth and creamy flesh that is almost buttery.  They truly are a delicacy. (See what I did there).

Fresh Pasta

We start with my trusty Kitchen Aid (Dolores is her name, that way I can sing this song when I’m cleaning).

Add the flour, salt, and eggs to the mixer with the dough hook on.

Mix until the egg is completely blended in.  If your dough starts to lump together, then great.

If not add a few tablespoons of water to get it to stick together.  Knead it, knead it good.  This is where the Dolores is worth her weight in gold, kneading gets old.  Needs to be smooth and slightly sticky, but not sticky icky.   Separate the dough into small manageable pieces.

Roll through the pasta roller on the thickest setting, you may want to fold it over itself and do it a couple times until it comes through smooth.

Progressively step down until you get the dough as thin as you want (chef’s choice).

Then roll it through the cutter attachment.  Let it sit hanging open to the air so it will dry out.

Boil in water with a touch of salt for 8-10 mins.

….and viola.

Sauce

Roast two delicata squash (sliced in half).

Pro tip-use a grapefruit spoon (the kind with the serrated edges) to scrape the seeds and strings from your squash it’s super fast.

I know you can eat the skins, but I just use the flesh on this.

Add the butter, squash, basil, cinnamon, cream, salt, pepper, and white wine all to a saute pan.

Stir until smooth (you may need to add some milk depending on how thick you want your sauce).  Cook for 10 min.  Once cooked add some mozzarella.  Stir until melted.

Serve over homemade noodles.

The perfect Autumn Alfredo.