It strikes me that if you read this blog on a regular basis, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that 1 child in 5 in the United States does not have enough to eat.
Every summer, we hear reports of teachers and school administrators concerned about how their students will get enough to eat during summer break without the school lunch program.
During the school year, we read about kids who are faced with food insecurity, and whose only meal of the day comes at lunch, leaving these children too hungry to be able to thrive in school.
Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry program is one that works to combat this issue, though it is a very, very large one.
This month, Romano’s Macaroni Grill has teamed up to donate up to 500 meals per blog post to No Kid Hungry, just for sharing a recipe for a favorite Italian meal and tagging it with #macgrillgive. So you knew I was going to do that, right?
The goal for this initiative was to donate 1 million meals, and Romano’s Macaroni Grill has already surpassed that goal, providing nearly 3 million meals to children in need.
If you’d like to help, you can donate $2 at your local Romano’s Macaroni Grill and receive $5 off your next meal.
Or you can use the hashtag #macgrillgive on Twitter or Instagram, or share an artist-inspired image from the Mac Grill Give Facebook Gallery to donate 1 meal to a child in need.
This recipe is a vegetarian, seasonally-inspired dish with just a little bit of spicy kick. I like the whole wheat pasta in the mix for its nutty flavor, but feel free to use white pasta if you’d prefer. And thank you for any and all support you’re able to give to No Kid Hungry.
Fusilli with Sicilian-Spiced Butternut Squash and Kale for No Kid Hungry
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of your skillet or saute pan)
- 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
- 1 bunch kale (approximately 3/4-pound), stems trimmed, leaves cut from the center rib (it's tough when cooked, so better to get rid of it) and chopped coarsely
- 1/4 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for 1/2 hour to soften, then drained
- 1/4 cup whole hazelnuts, toasted and skins removed (see note), then coarsely chopped
- 12 ounces whole wheat fusilli
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Cheese garnish options:
- crumbled goat cheese
- crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
- grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
- grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Toss the butternut squash with the olive oil, ground cinnamon, and crushed red pepper flakes, then season with pepper. Arrange the squash in a single layer on a 9 by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet. Roast until the squash is just starting to brown, 35 to 40 minutes, stirring midway through the baking time.
- Prepare the pasta according to the manufacturer's directions. I've found that 12 ounces is more than enough for 4 servings. However, the weight of whole wheat pasta packages can range from 13.2 ounces to 16 ounces, depending upon the brand, so if saving 1.2 ounces for future use seems absurd - which it does to me - go ahead and use the whole package. As you might have guessed, I'm dealing with a 16-ounce package of pasta, and it's really a waste to use it all.
- While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Add the shallot, and saute until it has softened and is translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the kale and saute, stirring frequently, until it has wilted, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Approximately 5 minutes before the pasta is done cooking, and toward the end of the kale cooking time (timing! it's all about timing!), add the roasted butternut squash and the softened raisins.
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain the pasta, reserving approximately 2 cups of the pasta cooking water. Add the fusilli to the saute pan, stir well, then add 1 cup of pasta cooking water to the pan, stirring well. The pasta cooking water will help to thicken the sauce, as it contains some of the gluten from the pasta. If you'd prefer a little more liquid in your sauce, add the remaining pasta water 1/2 cup at a time until the sauce is as you like it.
- Dole out the pasta to 4 plates, sprinkle with hazelnuts, then top with your choice of cheese. We preferred the Pecorino-Romano option overall.
Note
- To toast hazelnuts, place them in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, bake at 350ºF for 12 to 15 minutes for whole nuts, 6 to 8 minutes for chopped. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, then rub the skins off using a kitchen towel. If you can't find hazelnuts, go with toasted walnuts or almonds.
A note beyond the note
- For those who prefer less mess with their chopped hazelnuts, place the toasted, skinned hazelnuts in a storage bag and whack with the butt end of your knife, a can of tomatoes or beans, or (like I might have done) your water bottle. I go for breaking them roughly in half and then stop. You could also use a mortar and pestle if you have one.
https://tinyfarmhouse.com/2012/09/fusilli-with-sicilian-spiced-butternut-squash-and-kale-for-no-kid-hungry/
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of your skillet or saute pan)
- 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
- 1 bunch kale (approximately 3/4-pound), stems trimmed, leaves cut from the center rib (it's tough when cooked, so better to get rid of it) and chopped coarsely
- 1/4 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for 1/2 hour to soften, then drained
- 1/4 cup whole hazelnuts, toasted and skins removed (see note), then coarsely chopped
- 12 ounces whole wheat fusilli
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- crumbled goat cheese
- crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
- grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
- grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Toss the butternut squash with the olive oil, ground cinnamon, and crushed red pepper flakes, then season with pepper. Arrange the squash in a single layer on a 9 by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet. Roast until the squash is just starting to brown, 35 to 40 minutes, stirring midway through the baking time.
- Prepare the pasta according to the manufacturer's directions. I've found that 12 ounces is more than enough for 4 servings. However, the weight of whole wheat pasta packages can range from 13.2 ounces to 16 ounces, depending upon the brand, so if saving 1.2 ounces for future use seems absurd - which it does to me - go ahead and use the whole package. As you might have guessed, I'm dealing with a 16-ounce package of pasta, and it's really a waste to use it all.
- While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Add the shallot, and saute until it has softened and is translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the kale and saute, stirring frequently, until it has wilted, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Approximately 5 minutes before the pasta is done cooking, and toward the end of the kale cooking time (timing! it's all about timing!), add the roasted butternut squash and the softened raisins.
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain the pasta, reserving approximately 2 cups of the pasta cooking water. Add the fusilli to the saute pan, stir well, then add 1 cup of pasta cooking water to the pan, stirring well. The pasta cooking water will help to thicken the sauce, as it contains some of the gluten from the pasta. If you'd prefer a little more liquid in your sauce, add the remaining pasta water 1/2 cup at a time until the sauce is as you like it.
- Dole out the pasta to 4 plates, sprinkle with hazelnuts, then top with your choice of cheese. We preferred the Pecorino-Romano option overall.
- To toast hazelnuts, place them in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, bake at 350ºF for 12 to 15 minutes for whole nuts, 6 to 8 minutes for chopped. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, then rub the skins off using a kitchen towel. If you can't find hazelnuts, go with toasted walnuts or almonds.
- For those who prefer less mess with their chopped hazelnuts, place the toasted, skinned hazelnuts in a storage bag and whack with the butt end of your knife, a can of tomatoes or beans, or (like I might have done) your water bottle. I go for breaking them roughly in half and then stop. You could also use a mortar and pestle if you have one.
Here it is with Gorgonzola. Also good, but not as good as the Pecorino-Romano option to my mind.
Estimated cost of one batch of Fusilli with Sicilian-Spiced Butternut Squash and Kale: $11.44, or $2.86 per serving.
The butternut squash costs 79-cents per pound at my local farm stand, and anywhere from 99-cents to $1.49 per pound at my local Whole Foods. We’ll go with $1.49, and estimate 3 pounds, so $4.47. The olive oil for the whole dish is 9-cents per tablespoon (for Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value oil, which is $5.99), so that’s 36-cents. The cinnamon will run us around 10-cents, the crushed red pepper flakes around 3-cents. The shallot should be around 35-cents, the kale is $2.99 per bunch, or you can grow it yourself, and then it’s the cost of seeds divided by how many plants divided by yield…blah, blah, blah, let’s not do that math, but just know that it saves money overall. The raisins are around 45-cents per 1/4 cup, the hazelnuts are not inexpensive, and they cost us around 80-cents. The pasta (also store brand) cost $1.49, and the cheese is going to be in the 75-cents range.
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