Roasted Butternut Squash, Sausage and Orecchiette Pasta in a Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Slide a small baking sheet into your oven and preheat it to 375F degrees.

In a small dry pan or skillet, toast walnuts over medium heat until fragrant. Remove and set aside.

Peel and cube two cups of butternut squash. In a bowl, toss the squash with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper and dark brown sugar. (With oven mitts) remove pan from the preheating oven, add the squash to the hot pan and place back into the oven for 20-25 minutes, stirring once during the cooking time. Remove it from the oven once the squash is tender.

In a skillet, add a little olive oil and sear the chicken sausages over medium heat on all sides until nicely browned. Remove sausage from the skillet, slice it and add it back into the pan to crisp on all sides.

To a pot of (salted) boiling water, add in the three cups of orecchiette pasta. Cook as directed on package to al dente. Drain.

In a large bowl; combine the sausage, pasta and butternut squash.

Heat a 10 inch skillet on medium or medium-high heat. Place the stick of cold butter into the hot pan, lift pan a bit and swirl the butter. Add in the sage leaves and keep swirling until the butter has completely melted – by this time it should be a deep brown color.

Pour the brown butter sage sauce over the pasta mixture, toss and season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle toasted walnuts over top and serve immediately!