Butternut Not Lasagna Pasta

Fck lasagna. Fck having to chop up 20 different ingredients. Fck having to pre-roast (what does that even mean????) the vegetables for 50 minutes before you can even start ASSEMBLING your lasagna that will then have to be baked for another 10 eons before you can eat it OH WAIT just kidding because you actually should refrigerate it over night first chya go lasagna!!!!!!!!

Not. 

nice and NOT RAW #winning

I had bought all the ingredients to make this pasta during that one week when I was high off housewifery. This was like, being overly-ambitious on steroids. But since the ingredients were about to spoil, I had no choice but to start getting some of those dishes out of the way. Until I discovered cooking lasagna is basically like trying to deliver twin babies while drunk off whiskey and blindfolded in the rainforest. It's pretty much damn impossible.

So change of plans, and enter BUTTERNUT SQUASH PASTA.

With some improvisation and a lot of help from  the Mom and the Cousin, we produced some pretty awesome pasta that totally satisfied my two month-old craving of butternut squash (and strengthened it if anything. I want butternut squash in all the things!)

Difficulty: 6

I think this seemed harder than it really was because we were improving and figuring out what to do as we went. The next time I make this I bet it will go by pretty fast

Not my most photogenic dish, but made up in deliciousness 

Last minute inspiration: http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-pasta-with-butternut-sq-64966

Willingness to make again: 10!!
Over-all: 9.5

What we did:

1. We took the pre-cut butternut and fried them with garlic and cong -as opposed to roasting (URGH. grimace)
2. Since I wanted the butternut to be soft, we added WATER to the skillet as it fried, letting it sort of boil and fry at the same time? The Cousin says this is kind of analogous to roasting.
3. Boiled our pasta (bad flashbacks to raw chickpeas...I guess the wound is still fresh)
4. Combined our mashed up butternut with the boiled pasta and fried it all together
5. Added lots of salt and a tiny bit of wei jing at the end
6. During the final frying stage, added sage
7. Added parmesan on top afterwards (not cooked with everything)

I really loved how the butternut was mixed thoroughly into the pasta. Sage has an interesting flavor...Mom doesn't like it but I think it is okay. I think I like mint and basil more too though. I liked how the sage flavor was strong even when it was fried though.

Notes:
1. Cut the butternut into smaller pieces so that it boils and gets soft faster
2.  The Cousin says since we're Asian, we don't use the oven. Everything that needs to be done can be done on the stove. Will remember the frying-water-in-skillet tactic for future dishes that require roasting 
3. Basil next time 
4. The Cousin says parmesan is a topping, not something to be cooked in 
5. Next time should try with onions 

Okay I don't know why, but when I think of roasting, I see a greasy haired blonde kid who wears a suit top with khaki shorts on the bottom. He thinks pink shorts are socially acceptable. And he has those gross plastic ray-band sunglasses with neon sides. And he refers to his friends as BUH-ROZ. That's how I feel about roasting, don't ask why. 

 #realasiansusestoves!