Recipe: Butternut Squash Agnolotti with Thai Peanut Sauce...and a GIVEAWAY!

Stubbornness is a virtue, my friends, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

I like to call it "mental willpower" though.  Since it really is just the power to persevere in your line of thinking even when common sense and a second, third, fourth, and sometimes even fifth opinion is telling you otherwise.




Like, for instance...last night when I absolutely insisted that my sister and I had to move my piano from my parents' dining room in Queens to my bedroom in Manhattan even though there was not a single young, virile, able-bodied male present to aid with any of the heavy lifting.  (Brother dearest.  I'm looking at YOU.)

You see.  My keyboard and I have lived three years, twenty-two days, ten hours and five minutes in separation from each other.  With occasional weekend visits.  And when you occasionally feel like you've birthed the damn thing, you just love it so much, every additional second is just too much to bear.

This was not even a matter of desire anymore.  It was sheer, brutal, physical need.



Which, come to think of it, is also how I felt about this pasta.

You see, when Buitoni sent me some of their new butternut squash agnolotti a few weeks ago to taste test and to play around with, I hemmed and hawed for days over what to pair it with.  Until finally, inspiration struck and I remembered a butternut squash dumpling with peanut sauce that I had eaten with Lauren while we were in San Francisco for the Foodbuzz Festival.

Basically. Love at first bite.

And that was that.  From there on out, it was peanut sauce or bust.  Nothing was going to get in my way.

Until, of course, it came time to actually make the dish that I had dreamt about every night since my peanut sauce epiphany.  I pulled out the containers of ravioli from the fridge.  Read the fine print.  And realized that the butternut squash filling also contained parmesan cheese and little bits of amaretti cookies.  Delicious in theory, obviously, but when paired with a Thai flavor profile?  I had my doubts.

Enter the little peanut butter loving brat inside my head who wanted peanut sauce and wanted it NOW. I had no choice but to push on or risk a raging headache/mental breakdown combo.  And I am so glad I did.  Because though the two sets of flavors shouldn't work together AT.ALL.  Somehow...they do.  In a most awesomely addictive way.  In case you don't believe me (or think that I just have weirdo taste buds), you can ask The.Boy. who has a totally all-American normal palate and happened to love this.  (And who, also, speaking of which is spending the next three days taking the bar exam, so can we all wish him LOTS OF LUCK BABY. K thanks.)

Or...you can try it for yourself! Buitoni has given me TEN VOUCHERS for their refrigerated pasta and sauce to give away!  I will choose two winners each of whom will receive five vouchers.  All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment telling me what kind of sauce you would have paired with this pasta.  A winner will be chosen on Friday!



Butternut Squash Agnolotti with Thai Peanut Sauce
Serves 4, an Eats Well With Others Original

Ingredients

• 2 packages Buitoni butternut squash agnolotti
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 inch piece of raw ginger, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 medium eggplant, chopped into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 (14 oz) can lite coconut milk
• 1 tbsp thai red curry paste
• 3 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
2. While water is boiling, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic and ginger and saute, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add the pepper and eggplant to the pan.  Stir fry until tender, about 15-20 minutes.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together the coconut milk, red curry paste, peanut butter and brown sugar.  Pour into the pan with the veggies and cook until heated through.  Add salt and black pepper to taste.
4. Cook the agnolotti in the boiling water until tender.  Drain and mix in with the veggies and peanut sauce.  

I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights which is being hosted this week by Ruth of Once Upon A Feast.