Pasta with Cabbage and Winter Squash | Everyday Dorie

“Some dishes just pop into your head while you’re fretting that there’s nothing in the house for dinner,” quoting Dorie Greenspan’s in Everyday Dorie. We all have those moments. Here is a good suggestion of a delightful midweek meal: pasta with cabbage, winter squash and whatever you have on hand.

Here I use spaghetti, Delicata, green cabbage, dry cranberries, walnuts and freshly grated Parmesan. The secret sauce is made with cider vinegar. You don’t need a lot. Just 2 tablespoons to flavor 1/2 pound of winter squash. However, make sure to cook it down so the squash pieces are flavorful and soft. The surprise ingredients are the dried cranberries and walnuts. They are there for tartness, color, texture as well as nutty goodness.

Another tip: save some pasta water to add to the pasta, if you need more liquid in it.

This is the third pasta dish (besides pasta with cauliflower and pasta with shrimp) I’ve made so far this month, surpassing the number of pasta dishes I made in the entire 2019 on this blog. Few things stand out about pasta dishes: easy, quick, versatile, pantry and budget friendly without compromising taste. Good pasta, a chunk of cheese and a handful of seasonal ingredients are all you need. In other words, whatever you can forage in the fridge and pantry could be transformed into a satisfying meal. As simple as that!

I had an experience when some house guests walking in the door in the evening after a day of sightseeing and hungry. Guess what I made for them: pasta with eggplant and capers in a tomato sauce. The results: the plates were licked clean and there’s nothing left. It’s the same idea that pasta dishes are quick to put together with whatever you have in the pantry.

The pasta dishes I made this month in January and the Pecorino and pistachio are the best last-minute impromptu meals I’d proudly serve up to my guests.