Pasta With Cabbage, Winter Squash And Walnuts

This is the second pasta recipe selected this month at Cook The Book Fridays, from Everyday Dorie cookbook. 

The main ingredients are winter squash, green cabbage, dried cranberries, walnuts and pasta. Flavour from this pasta dish comes from cider vinegar. I've used regular pumpkin and napa cabbage.

The squash is first cooked in a little oil, season with salt and pepper until tender, then stir in the vinegar followed by the honey. Dish out and keep aside. The pasta is boiled in salted water, and the dried cranberries are thrown in during the last one minute of the pasta cooking time. Drain the pasta and retain a quarter cup or so of the cooking water. The cabbage is cooked in a tablespoon of oil, season with salt and pepper, with a tablespoon of cider vinegar, stir until it is absorbed. Pour in about a quarter cup of the pasta cooking water, stir for a minute, then add the pasta with the cranberries and a tablespoon of olive oil, Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, topped with walnuts and Parmesan.

We thought this pasta dish was just OK. The cranberries and walnuts added a nice touch and texture to the dish, but this is not in our list of favourite pasta dish. The family prefers the previous pasta we made two weeks ago, Pasta with Shrimp, Squash, Lemon and Lots Of Herbs, of which there's a request to make again.