Butternut Goat Cheese Pasta

Do you have ingredients that you buy every time you shop regardless of whether you have some at home?  I had a friend who buys avocados every time she goes to the store.  She always has piles of them in varying levels of ripeness accumulating on her counter. 

For me, it's cheese.  I counted 17 pkgs of shredded cheese (I kid you not), 5 blocks of artisan cheese, 2 wedges of parmesan, 3 full size balls of fresh mozzarella and 2 enormous logs of goat cheese when I cleaned out my fridge yesterday.  We won't count the Costco bag of string cheese--those belong to Brooklyn as she is more diligent about eating her cheese than I am. 

All that to say that I adore cheese.  It frightens me to think of a refrigerator without it.  And with so much cheese, I needed to make cheese with a little pasta today. 

This "recipe" was quite the evolution.  It started with an idea to make a goat cheese mac-n-cheese type dish. While searching for mac in the basement "pantry" I realized that 1) I didn't have macaroni and 2) I still had a butternut squash from last fall.  Seriously.  I store them in the cool basement and while they last months, I was surprised that this one lasted months and then some.  So then I wanted to make something with butternut squash. Butternut squash and creamy goat cheese is definitely good eats. 

The evolution didn't stop there.  True to most of my cooking, it's all often about what' closest or what whim hits me....

....I was going to sautee the onions in coconut oil but then I found bacon in my fridge....bacon it is.
....I was going to make the sauce with white wine...for all of a second.  Then I saw the beer that I'd just opened, sipped, and decided I wasn't in the mood for.  When you are cooking just for yourself, you can use the beer you just sipped.

Beer is definitely not standard or expected but I was thrilled with the result.  Seriously.  Beer has that malty, hoppy flavor that translated into a hearty sauce that was fantastic with the goat cheese.

A full pantry search yielded exactly one pkg of pasta.  The luck continues.

I'm not the world's biggest pasta eater but this was a combo that I loved, loved, loved.  It might even persuade me to eat pasta twice in the same week.  The sweet butternut squash was a perfect contrast to the salty bacon, tangy goat cheese and malty beer.  I love a happy accident.

Butternut Goat Cheese Pasta

Ingredients:
8 oz dried pasta
4 oz bacon diced
1 cup diced onions
2 garlic cloves minced
2 cups cooked cubed butternut squash
4 oz goat cheese
1/3 cup shredded parmesan
1/2-2/3 bottle of lager
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
Fresh basil (optional)

Directions:

1. Place a large pot of water on to boil
2. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add diced bacon and cook until bacon is crisp.  Remove all but 1 tbsp of the bacon grease
3. Add pasta to boiling water and cook per directions on pkg
4. Lower heat to medium low and add onions and garlic.  Sautee until onions are tender, about 5-6 minutes
5. Return heat to med-high heat, add squash, goat cheese and parmesan and stir well.  Add lager and cook for 3-4 minutes or until sauce thickens.  
6. When pasta is al dente, spoon pasta directly from pasta water to butternut squash pan (do not rinse pasta as this helps the sauce stick to the pasta) Mix to combine and serve immediately with fresh basil if desired