pappardelle with roasted butternut squash puree, bacon, and gorgonzola

so my roommate madison came home earlier this week from her long sojurn to the sxsw and mtymx festivals, and I advised her to return hungry. I made this pasta that was really tasty and chock full of butternut squash goodness and bacon/cheese evil! It was pretty simple...

1) peel and remove seeds from a butternut squash

2) preheat oven to 375

3) chop squash into small, similarly-sized pieces

4) toss squash with olive oil, salt and pepper

5) roast until tender

6) while squash roasts, cook pasta and fry bacon

7) puree roasted squash with chicken stock until roughly smooth (some lumps are good)

8) drain pasta just before aldente, cook with puree, add bacon and gorgonzola before serving

But I'm gonna come clean, this post is really a back-handed attempt to get you to make your own chicken stock, and tell you how easy it is.

I made chicken stock while I was making chicken salad the other day. I had some chicken bones and fat, leeks, and thyme in my freezer just waiting to be made into stock (left over from that time I made the whole roasted chicken). So I let them thaw and threw them into a hot le creuset, browned everything for awhile, then added enough water to nearly fill the pot, salt (not a lot), and smashed garlic cloves and simmered away until it tasted satisfactory (about an hour, hour and a half). Then I let it cool and skimmed the fat from the top, put it in a ziploc freezer bag, and I have so much chicken stock to put to various uses, like making a butternut squash puree! It really is simple, you don't have to stir it or watch it or anything, just let it simmer uncovered until it has a nice color, aroma, and flavor. this shit is way better than you would buy in a box or (eek!) a can.

And it allows you to put to good use all those chicken bones you have lying around the....oh wait, no one probably has that but me. Next time you feel like chicken, cook a whole one and save the bones. k?