A guide to winter squash: butternut squash leftovers

If you happen to have leftovers from my Lemony Butternut Squash, you're in luck. It's the perfect base for the easiest pasta sauce. All you do is blend it, 1/3 to 1/2 cup milk or cream and 2T brown sugar for every one cup of squash. Toss with pasta and top with cheese.

And I know leftovers are all about cooking with what you have on hand, so please use this recipe as a learning experience; always have orecchiette in your pantry and pecorino in your fridge. Orecchiette is an adorable shape of pasta, named so because it is the shape of little ears. Personally, it reminds me more of tiny bowls, each holding its own considerable portion of creamy sauce. Pecorino is a sheep milk (more accurately Ewe's milk) cheese that is hard and nutty and a lot like Parmesan, only better. The sauce, tangy and sweet, nestles gently into the indents of the pasta, and is cut by the saltiness and nuttiness of the cheese...and all of it, piping hot. Aren't winter dinners the coziest?

What are you having for dinner tonight?