Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

Tuck a roasted butternut squash puree into this delightful butternut squash mac and cheese casserole for color and flavor. Lots of Gruyere and sharp cheddar cheeses balance the sweetness of the squash. It's a lovely vegetarian main, especially when paired with a crisp green salad.

Thanksgiving was lovely, and now it's on to the next thing, yes? This is how this time of year makes me feel: happy, so happy to be celebrating and cooking and gathering together, but then as soon as the dishes have been cleared it's time to think about the next event/dinner/etc. I love that in a way: always planning and plotting. Yet also: whew.

I am currently sipping a late cup of coffee while listening the rain come down on the fire escape outside. My new 'office' is a little corner of our bedroom where I have squeezed in my desk, a gift from my parents ages ago. There's a window in front of me as well as to my right; the one to my right is open a little and all I hear is drip-drip-drip. Atop the desk are piles of paper, my camera, a lamp, and a notebook that currently contains lists in various stages of completion. I'm staring down another article that is taking much longer than it should (photos are finished, however, which is nearly half the battle). I have a pot of minestrone soup going on the stove and a batch of flourless ginger cookies in the oven. I'm starting to think about lunch options.

As a consolation prize for applying myself to my tasks, I have the last of the roasted butternut squash macaroni and cheese I made last week for our pre-Thanksgiving dinner. The New York Times ran a story on 'vegetarian comfort food' that immediately caught my because there is little else I love more than vegetarian comfort food as this site no doubt proves. I'm also on a mission to convert DW to butternut squash, as he has an extreme aversion to orange vegetables (though will eat my pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies without issue and I think I did catch him eating his entire bowl of pumpkin-leek soup on Thanksgiving ...), or at least the idea of them. Folding a roasted squash puree into mac and cheese seemed a good way to entice him into eating it.

It's a simple enough recipe, just butternut squash roasted and pureed and folded into a cheese sauce that's then draped over pasta and baked a little while longer. While the squash roasts, you can make the sauce and pasta, and the 'active' time is whittled down to about 20 minutes. It also makes an enormous amount: a family of four could get about two dinners out of this (for two people we had 2 dinners and lunches besides). I doctored up the recipe a bit, adding dried herbs, and a bit more salt, and used whole wheat macaroni, which I prefer, and it's worth clicking the link to see a few other recipes included in the article.

Hard to believe Thanksgiving was already over a week ago - the turkey leftovers (I went the Trader Joe's pre-brined bird route this year, and a 14-pounder was done in about 3 hours; my tiny oven, occasionally the subject of much ire, never fails to astonish) are long since digested and I am starting to write up a menu for our holiday party in few weeks (flourless desserts, naturally, will feature).

This recipe is adapted from the NY Times. I made some changes to the Times’ recipe, most notably the inclusion of Gruyere cheese, which I love in macaroni and cheese. I also used extra sharp cheddar, as I have a penchant for very sharp cheese especially in recipes such as this one. We ate our servings with various vegetables – steamed broccoli, a salad, roasted brussels sprouts and cauliflower – and they were all just right.