tagliatelle with roasted acorn squash, garlic confit and sage butter

I like this pasta for Thanksgiving 

Do you have an acorn squash and maybe a garlic bulb rattling around on your counter?  Maybe from a trip to the farmers market?   I did, but not anymore, I put mine in this fall flavored pasta dish, along with a few other pantry items plus sage from a pot in my garden.   We loved this pasta for dinner and I baked the leftovers to serve with short ribs, delicious.  We went to Carmel last week and stopped in Gilroy to buy garlic on the way home so now that I have two bowls of garlic bulbs on my counter -Now I'm looking for recipes that use garlic, maybe a little more than normal.  

Ingredient and Recipe for Tagliatelle with Roasted Acorn Squash, Garlic Confit and Sage Butter

Serves 4

1 medium large acorn squash

1 bulb fresh garlic

1 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg, plus extra for serving

2 dozen sage leaves, on the small side, for serving

4 bundles tagliatelle noodles

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F

Line a baking sheet with parchment

Slice the acorn squash into quarters, remove the seeds and strings, place skin side down on the prepared baking sheet.

Drizzle the squash with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

Slice the top of the entire garlic bulb off, place on the parchment lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake the squash and garlic until tender, about 45 minutes.  Continue baking garlic bulb, if necessary until caramelized.

Meanwhile, heat the butter and olive oil in a medium size skillet until foamy and slightly browned.

Fry the sage leaves until crispy, remove to a paper towel to drain, reserve sage flavored butter/oil mixture in skillet for pasta sauce.

When the squash and garlic are cool enough to handle, peel off the skin from the squash and squeeze out the light brown caramelized garlic cloves, being careful to leave the papery skin behind.

Add the squash, garlic, chicken broth, nutmeg, browned butter/olive oil mixture from the skillet to a blender, I used my NutriBullet.

Blend until creamy and smooth, taste for seasoning, adding salt if necessary.

Cook the tagliatelle noodles according to package directions, drain-reserving a cup of hot pasta water to thin the sauce.

Heat the sauce in a large skillet on the stove, add the noodles and swirl to coat with sauce.  Add pasta water to sauce as necessary.

Serve the pasta with the freshly ground Parmesan cheese, fried sage leaves and additional grated nutmeg to taste.