Spaghetti with Eggplant, Butternut Squash and Shrimp | Everyday Italian

Could you possibly spy this eggplant at the market and not buy it? Could you then not bring it back to your office just so you could place it on your desk and wait for your fellow employees to walk by your office and get a glimpse of it, and then take a double take? Could you then not dress up the eggplant, call it Mr. Eggplant Head, and take far too many pictures of it? Well maybe if your mature you can stop yourself from doing all these things, but I am not so I did all of the above, and then I took it home and ate it. In fact, we ate it so fast I didn't get any pictures of the dish, but it was very very good. It was a Halloween recipe from Giada's Everyday Italian. Here Goes.

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 5 cups)

2 Japanese eggplants, cut into 1-inch cubes (I used regular eggplant)

1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

1 1/4 cups dry white wine

2 cups fish broth, fresh or frozen, or canned vegetable broth (I used vegetable broth)

2 pounds uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined

Salt and pepper

17.5 ounces orange-colored fresh spaghetti or linguine 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

Heat the oil in a heavy large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for just a minute. Add the squash, eggplant, rosemary and thyme and saute for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the wine and broth and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Decrease the heat to medium-low and simmer until the squash is tender and the liquid is reduced by about half, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer gently until almost cooked through, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Drain pasta. (Alternatively, you can use dried pasta, which will take 8 to 10 minutes to cook.)

Toss the pasta, squash mixture, and butter in a large bowl until the liquid thickens slightly and coats the pasta. Transfer the pasta mixture to a wide shallow bowl and serve.

Note: I wanted to thicken up the sauce a bit so I dissolved a tablespoon of cornstarch in a few tablespoons of water and added it to the sauce. I think it worked better doing that than if I hadn't.

Rating = Damn Good