Pasta with Butternut Squash Sauce, Gruyere, and Greens

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If you’ve never made butternut squash sauce for pasta before, this is your chance to impress yourself and your friends and family. This pasta dish is great for when you’re craving mac and cheese but also vegetables. The sauce is velvety smooth, naturally a little sweet from the squash, a little cheesy and nutty from the gruyere, and a tiny bit bitter from the sautéed Swiss chard. It’s creamy, cozy, and a wonderfully comforting seasonal recipe.

Why You’ll Love This Pasta with Butternut Squash Sauce

The butternut squash sauce is creamy and flavorful. Blending up roasted squash and shallots with vegetable broth and cream adds nutrients and a hint of sweetness to this rich sauce.
Swiss chard brings freshness and balance. We love adding sauteed onions and chard for a more pronounced veggie flavor and subtle bitterness, which balances out the sweetness in the butternut squash sauce. Feel free to swap out the chard for kale, mustard greens, or another bitter leafy green.
It’s easy enough for a weeknight, but feels dinner-party worthy. If you’ve got an hour, you can prep and cook this recipe, making it a great weeknight dinner option. It’s also super impressive and feels fancy enough to serve at your next cozy dinner party.
It makes the best leftovers! We love leftovers when the dish is excellent, and this one is. It heats up nicely the next day and is just as flavorful, making it a great cozy lunch option too.

Close up of squiggly pasta coated in a butternut squash cream sauce, sauteed greens, and gruyere cheese resting on a gray plate.

Butternut Squash Sauce is a Great Way to Sneak in Extra Nutrition

Okay, full disclosure. We do add heavy cream to this sauce, so maybe that makes it less healthy. But we also blend up a bunch of roasted butternut squash and shallots, which add a lot of nutrients. Butternut squash is low in calories and is a good source of antioxidants, including vitamin C and beta carotene (which also gives it its orange color). It’s also high in vitamin A, which is helps with vision, immune system function, and helps with bone growth and development. Butternut squash is also an excellent source of fiber.

Ingredients in Pasta with Butternut Squash Sauce

The star of this pasta is the butternut squash sauce. It’s creamy and rich and full of flavor and vibrant color. It’s fairly easy to make and only has a few ingredients. The additional pasta ingredients add depth and balance to the dish and round out this recipe.

Butternut squash – we like to buy pre-cut squash for ease. Just make sure that all of the cubes are roughly 1 inch in size so that they roast evenly and quickly.
Shallots – slicing these thicker will help ensure they don’t burn when you roast them with the squash.
Olive oil, salt, pepper – toss the squash with these ingredients before baking.
Heavy cream – this adds creaminess and richness. Make sure that your cream is at room temperature before blending it with the warm, roasted squash or the sauce might split and curdle.
Vegetable broth – use your favorite veggie broth, and make sure it’s room temperature or warm. We like Better than Bouillon.
Pasta – we like using fusilli corti bucati because of its twisty shape that holds onto the sauce well. Feel free to use your favorite pasta. We don’t recommend longer noodles like spaghetti or smaller pastas like orzo for this because they won’t soak up or cling to the sauce as well.
Onion – we love the flavor of sweet or yellow onions in this pasta.
Swiss chard – the bitterness of the chard balances out the sweetness of the squash.
Gruyere – this adds nutty funkiness to the sauce. We suggest shredding it yourself so that it melts easily.
Spices – salt, freshly grated nutmeg, and crushed red pepper flakes round out this dish.

How to Make This Pasta with Butternut Squash Sauce

Preheat your oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Toss the squash and shallots with 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt, and ¼ tsp black pepper. Add to the baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes, or until the squash is soft.
While the squash is cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Remove the shallots and squash from the oven and set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Add the veggie broth and then the roasted squash and shallots to a high powered blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, then add in the cream and blend again.

Add the roasted squash and shallots to a blender with veggie broth.
Blend the roasted squash and shallots with the broth and cream.

Add 1 tbsp of olive oil and onions to a sauté pan over medium heat. Cook until slightly softened, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the chard and season with a pinch of red pepper flakes and a touch of salt. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until slightly wilted.
Pour in the butternut squash sauce into the pan with the veggies and cook until warmed through. Mix in the shredded gruyere until smooth, and add a dash of freshly grated nutmeg. Taste the sauce for seasoning.
While the sauce finishes up, add your pasta to the pot of boiling water and cook until it’s al dente, according to package directions (don’t overcook it or it’ll get mushy in the sauce later). Drain the pasta and set aside.
Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and stir gently to combine. Garnish with more gruyere and red pepper flakes, if desired.

Cook the onions and chard until soft and wilted.
Pour in the butternut squash sauce.
Add the shredded gruyere.
Add the cooked pasta to the sauce.

Tips & Variations

Swap Swiss chard for kale, mustard greens or even spinach. Spinach is lighter, however, so if you choose to use that, add it to the sauce directly at the end because it doesn’t need as much time to cook.
Use pre-cut butternut squash to make things easier and quicker.
If the pasta sauce thickens up too much, you can add a couple of tablespoons (up to ¼ cup) of water to help loosen it up.
Add pancetta or Italian sausage for extra protein.
Make it lighter by using half and half instead of cream. However, the lower amount of fat in the sauce might make it easier for the sauce to break. You could also use evaporated milk instead, but it might change the flavor slightly.

Serving & Storage Suggestions

We like to serve this squash with a simple side salad (arugula and a simple dressing works well) and our Parmesan Cheese Bread.

For storage, you can keep any leftover butternut squash sauce and pasta in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days for best results. It reheats well in a microwave safe bowl, or you can add it to a pan on the stove and reheat it that way.

Gray plate full of squiggly pasta coated in a butternut squash cream sauce, sauteed greens, and gruyere cheese.

FAQs: Butternut Squash Sauce

What is butternut squash sauce made of?

We make our butternut squash sauce with roasted butternut squash and shallots that get blended up with veggie broth and cream. We mix this sauce with Swiss chard, onions, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, and gruyere cheese.

Can I make butternut squash sauce ahead of time?

Yes! You can puree the squash, shallots, broth, and cream ahead of time for convenience! Store it in an airtight container for up to 4 days, then add it to the chard, onions, spices and heat it through when ready to eat. Once it’s heated, you can add the cheese and the cooked pasta.

What’s the best pasta for butternut squash sauce?

We like the squiggly fusili corto bucati with this sauce, but any short, medium sized pasta will work, like rigatoni, penne, or medium-sized shells. These will hold onto the sauce nicely.