This cozy fall squash and ricotta pasta with crunchy walnuts on top is the perfect hearty one-pot meal this season.
This cozy fall pasta is perfect for dinner or lunch. It makes the perfect side dish with your main course from meat, chicken, or seafood.
My favorite food to pair with this delicious pasta bowl is some salmon.
This one-pot fall pasta is so rich in seasonal flavors. With each bite, you can feel the brightness and freshness of the ingredients used.
I used ricotta with the pasta water and some extra virgin olive oil to create a creamy sauce for this pasta.
And to make the flavor deeper, nothing beats my favorite Lebanese sumac. The tangy lemony taste of sumac adds so much to any dish. With the boost of lemon zest, juice, and some garlic, the lemony tangy taste of this pasta is just out of this world!
Also, to add more richness to the taste of this pasta and make it cozier and more fall-inspired, nothing beats some delicious butternut squash roasted to perfection. The butternut squash adds a savory-sweet hearty taste to this recipe that is so unique!
To make this pasta bowl more nutritionally packed, I added kale. Kale texture and taste go great with this pasta combination. But you can easily substitute it with some spinach or even chard!
And speaking about texture, my absolute favorite part of this whole recipe is the walnuts! While testing this recipe, adding the toasted walnuts took this recipe to a whole new level!
Adding toasted walnuts to this recipe is a must to elevate this pasta bowl from regular to an exceptional hearty dish full of delightful textures and flavors. and if you want to make this recipe more sophisticated in taste and texture try making your own pasta at home, you can check my easy recipe for homemade pasta dough and make the best out of this recipe!
For the roasting in this recipe: I want to make this recipe as quick and easy as possible. For that reason, I used my air-fryer to roast the squash and toast the walnuts. I will mention all the details in the recipe below. However, you can surely use the oven for doing those two steps.
If you like pasta comforting recipes make sure to check my other delicious pasta dishes! And don’t forget to check my collection of fall-inspired recipes also.
And now let’s start preparing this delicious fall squash and ricotta pasta with crunchy walnuts together!
fall squash and ricotta pasta with crunchy walnuts
Equipment
Ingredients
for the walnuts and squash:
- ½ cup walnuts or pecans finely chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh mint roughly chopped
- 400 g butternut squash cut into 3 cm cubes (see notes)
- 2 tsp dried oregano
for the sauce:
- 2 tsp fresh lemon zest
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp sumac
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese drained well (see notes)
for the pasta:
- 500 g pasta I prefer the radiatori shapes (see notes)
- 2 cups fresh kale chopped into smaller 5 cm pieces (see notes)
- salt and water for boiling
- salt and pepper for seasoning
Instructions
start by toasting your walnuts:
- preheat your air-fryer to 180 C and toast the walnuts for 5 minutes until slightly darkened. tossing halfway to get an even color. When done remove and set aside.
roast your squash:
- peel your butternut squash cut in half, remove the seeds and cut into 3 cm cubes. Drizzle some olive oil, and sprinkle the dry oregano and toss until everything is coated with the oil and herb. Roast in 200 C preheated air-fryer for 20 min, tossing halfway. When done remove and set aside.
boil the pasta:
- in very salty water boil your pasta according to the package. Before the cooking time in 2 minutes add the chopped kale and mix until it is wilted.
- set aside 1 cup of the pasta water and drain the remaining liquid. turn the pasta to the pot.
prepare the sauce:
- in a small bowl mix together: the lemon zest and juice, the olive oil, sumac garlic, parmesan cheese, and salt.
- turn the heat on the pasta pot on low. add the mixed sauce with 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water. toss the pasta until everything is coated well with the sauce. add more pasta water and mix if needed if you feel that the pasta is still dry. you should be able to see some liquid in the bottom of the pot and the pasta needs to look shiny snd slick with oil.
- stir in the ricotta cheese ad toss till a creamy sauce forms. add salt and black pepper to taste ad toss well.
adding the toppings:
- remove from heat and toss in the roasted squash. mix the walnuts with the chopped mint. reserve half of the mix for garnish and sprinkle the other half and mix with the pasta.
serve and enjoy:
- divide into your serving plates, sprinkle some extra rumbled ricotta cheese on top, and some of the toasted walnut and mint mix. enjoy!
Notes
- make this recipe ahead of time: you can toast your walnut and roast the squash up to 3 days before and store it in the fridge. but it is better to cook and enjoy on the spot because the pasta will with time dry out and oak all the sauce.
- leftovers: for any leftovers from this recipe you can store up to 4 days and enjoy them from the fridge. as mentioned before the sauce will be soaked by the pasta, you add some water and reheated it in a pan to bring back some of the creamy texture.
- walnuts substitute: you can substitute the walnuts with pecans, or almonds, or any nuts of your choice. just make sure you keep an eye on them while toasting because every nut toasting time is different.
- butternut squash substitute: if you don’t have you can use pumpkin or sweet potato or yams instead of the squash to maintain a similar savory-sweet taste. but you can totally also replace it with any roasted vegetable of your choice.
- ricotta cheese substitute: I tested this recipe also with fetta cheese and turned out great! just make sure you don’t add any salt before tasting at the end because the fetta is much saltier than the ricotta.
- butternut squash substitute: I highly recommend trying the kale in this recipe because it holds better in the heat and tastes great in this recipe but if you don’t have kale you can still prepare this recipe with some spinach or chard or any green leaves you like.
- pasta shapes: you can use any shape of pasta you like from normal spaghetti, linguine, penne, or any shape you prefer.
- air fryer vs oven roasting: I prefer to use my air fryer to roast and toast in this recipe because it is quicker and much fewer dishes to clean. but you can still use the oven to toast the walnuts on 180 C for 9 minutes. and roast the squash cubes for 25 minutes at 200 C.