Rigatoni with Butternut-Gruyere Sauce

I am on a roll with using leftovers in my cooking. Today, I used up the leftover pureed squash I had for a pasta recipe that sounded super yummy. I did make one slight mistake when I was cooking, I set my herbs aside and never added them into the sauce. I never even noticed until I was cleaning up. Oh well! It was good regardless. I am saving then dessert I was going to make tonight for tomorrow to bring to a meeting I'm going to.

I have also decided today that they should have a channel that plays nothing but Alton Brown all day. I'm watching him on the Cooking Channel right now and he is eating lutefisk, which is making my pasta in belly not settle so well. I'd like to say that I'm adventurous in my appetite, but I'm not sure I could ever eat lutefisk, or haggis, or headcheese.

Let's go back to discussing really yummy foods...like butternut squash and gruyere cheese. Today, while grocery shopping I discovered smoked gruyere. How have I never seen this before??? I buy gruyere a few times a year and have bypassed the smoked gruyere somehow. I bought some just to try it and ended up putting it into my sauce. I'm not sure I can eat regular gruyere ever again...

Rigatoni with Butternut-Gruyere Sauce
adapted from here

1 medium, or 1 pound butternut squash (I used leftover pureed squash)
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, diced
olive oil
kosher salt
2 cups milk or cream
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup Gruyère cheese, grated
1 pound rigatoni pasta
1 cup fresh sage, chopped
2 tablespoons freshly chopped flat leaf parsley

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut butternut squash in half and remove seeds and stringy parts. Reserve seeds for roasting if desired. Drizzle halves with olive oil and sprinkle with a little kosher salt. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet and roast at 350 degrees until very fork tender, about 1 hour.
2.  Once squash is done, cook pasta according to package directions and drain well. Preheat large skillet. Drizzle with olive oil. Add onion and garlic. Saute over medium heat until translucent. Scoop roasted squash away from the skin and add to skillet. Add butter and milk. Heat through. Remove from heat and add sage, parsley and cheese. Mix until cheese has melted. Serve with crusty bread.

My sauce was thinner than this recipe calls for, just because the squash was pureed beforehand, but if you let the sauce sit for about 10 minutes it thickens up (I learned this when I was packing up leftovers). I also sprinkled some shredded smoked gruyere on top, and the bits with a lot of it on it were the yummiest. Oddly enough, and not planned at all, a recipe I'm planning on making later in the week calls for gruyere. I'll have to go buy some more as I used up quite a bit today, but I have a little leftover. The leftover cooking continues!