Pasta with Roasted Squash, Sausage and Pecans

Today in the Safeway parking lot armed with this month's Food & Wine in hand, we picked this recipe because we had already had oodles of butternut squash and sage at home.  Thank goodness we did!  It was delicious, easy, and made lots of leftovers for the week.

I do need to disclose that we forgot to pick up pecans so we used cashews instead (yum) and we also picked up some delicious parmesan from Eataly in NYC (highly recommended) last weekend so we used that instead of asiago.

OH!  And we had asparagus on the side and paired it with Casillero Del Diablo Carmenere 2010.  Perfecto!

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 pounds butternut squash—peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch dice
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon chopped sage, plus 20 whole leaves
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1 pound fusilli or other curly pasta
1/4 cup freshly grated aged Asiago cheese, plus more for serving

Preheat the oven to 400°. On a large rimmed baking sheet, drizzle the squash with 2 tablespoons of oil and toss. Arrange in an even layer and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Bake for about 30 minutes, until just tender. Add the chopped sage and toss.

Meanwhile, put the pecans in a pie plate and bake for about 4 minutes, until toasted.

In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add the whole sage leaves and cook over moderate heat, turning once, until crisp, 2 minutes. Transfer the leaves to a plate and pour the butter into a bowl. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and the sausage to the skillet and cook over moderately high heat, breaking up the sausage, until no pink remains, 7 minutes.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot. Add the sausage and melted butter and gradually stir in the cooking water over moderate heat. Gently fold in the squash, pecans and the 1/4 cup of cheese. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl. Scatter the sage on top and serve with more cheese.