Roasted butternut squash and sage pesto

inspired by a recipe found on Food52

This colourful dish highlights the sweetness of butternut squash, but balances it with savoury, herbaceous pesto.

Food52 has been a huge source of inspiration, comfort, and beautiful meals since I first discovered it. I can always rely on this website to find lovely recipes, like this butternut squash dish that has been a frequent offering on my dinner table since I stumbled upon the recipe

I enjoy this recipe because it has so much flavour, and so few ingredients. It allows the individual tastes of butternut squash, sage, and garlic to really shine, and can be easily adapted depending on what you like, and what you have in your kitchen.

—Chelsea 

Serves 4–6

1. Preheat oven to 450F

2. Peel the butternut squash, and scoop out the seeds. Cut it in half, lengthwise, and then cut crosswise into wedges.

3. Place butternut squash wedges on a cooking sheet, and drizzle with olive oil and maple syrup. Then, sprinkle salt and cayenne pepper.

4. Roast for about 15 minutes, and then flip each wedge to roast about 15 minutes more.

5. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan over low heat, and add sage and smashed garlic cloves. Once sizzling, add to the food processor with Parmesan, hazelnuts, a drizzle of additional olive oil, and salt. If you don’t have a food processor, you could finely chop the nuts, grate the Parmesan, and then mix everything in a bowl or mortar and pestle.

6. Once the butternut squash is nice and caramelized, arrange each piece on a plate, and cover with the pesto. Enjoy!

Further ideas and modifications

• While sage pesto pairs so nicely with butternut squash, feel free to use other culinary herbs, like basil for example.
• Hazelnuts offer a great flavour in this dish, but any nut would work, so be creative and use what you have.

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