chorizo and butternut squash pasta

I have an addictive personality, it's part of the whole bi-polar thing.

I become addicted to one thing after another without even knowing it's happening until I'm within inches of hitting rock bottom.

In the past it's been different drugs, alcohol, smoking, shopping, I could go on.

The interesting thing to me is that I eventually do notice what's happening, always just before it goes too far. At that point I tend to play a little game of russian roulette with myself.

I observe myself in the addiction for a little while so that I can analyze my own insanity. Then when things start getting a little too crazy I decide to put my foot down and I quit the addiction cold turkey.

I've become a master at playing out this pattern.

I'd like to think that I'm done with the self destructive addictions. You can only aim a gun at your own head so many times before you run out of chances and, well, you know what happens.

So I found a constructive release for my addictive tendencies. It's called cooking.

I cook the way I used to use drugs.

I become obsessed with an ingredient, a style of cooking, a particular dish and I go with it until one of two things happens:

I get bored and move on to the next thing

Or, slightly more dramatically, those forced to eat my food on a daily basis beg me to stop, refuse to let me buy any more of the ingredient and hide what I have left in the house.

I'm still not allowed to use bacon goddamit!

Which is a shame because I'd really like to use some bacon with my latest addiction, butternut squash....so I decided to maneuver my way around that by using other yummy pork stuffs.


This pasta is my take on a Mario Batali recipe from Food and Wine a couple of years ago. The original is great but I really wanted to add another level of flavour with the chorizo sausage.

The dish is really about the flavours of the squash and sausage. It is not overwhelmed by a huge amount of pasta.

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 medium sweet onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
*1 chorizo sausage cut in slices
1 medium butternut squash peeled and diced in small cubes
1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme (or equivalent dried)
**8 oz. cavatelli pasta (cooked to al dente) (reserve the pasta water)
1/4 cup of parmigiano or pecorino cheese grated (I used a mixture)

* I used a sweet chorizo and added spice with the chili flakes.
** If you can't find cavatelli (I got excited when my grocery store actually had it for once!) just use a small but hearty pasta that will hold up to the chunky ingredients.

Heat olive oil and chili flakes.
Add chorizo and saute until the sausage begins to release it's oils.
Add onion and garlic and saute until softened (a few minutes).
Season with s&p.
Add squash and stir mixture together.
Add chopped thyme.
Saute mixture for 5 minutes or so uncovered.

At this point put your pasta water on to boil.
Continue to saute your squash mixture covered for 5 minutes.
Check the squash for firmness.
You want the squash to be tender but still hold it's shape.
When the squash is tender transfer to a large serving bowl.
Add your cooked pasta to the squash.
Mix everything together with your cheese.
Add some of the reserved pasta water to loosen the mixture if you want.
Serve with more grated cheese over top.