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Butternut Squash Pasta with Maple-Basil Butter Sauce

The truly great thing about this dish (besides the fact that you can throw it together in less than 10 minutes) is the balance of sweet and savory. The slightly sweet butternut squash touched with just a hint of maple pairs beautifully with the nutty butter, pasta and Parmesan. Top it off with the earthy basil…and what are you still doing here? Go and make this dish!

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Butternut Squash Pasta with Maple-Basil Butter Sauce

Why it works: Pasta and butternut squash share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 46 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Butternut Squash Pasta with Maple-Basil Butter Sauce

Serves 2
Prep1 min
Cook9 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

495Calories
19 gProtein
20 gFat
60 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pasta1 cup cooked (140g)220
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Maple Syrup1 tbsp (20ml)52
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Pumpkinnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pasta + butternut squashtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pasta + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Garlic + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Pasta + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pasta, butter, garlic, butternut squash, maple syrup, pepper, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pasta, butter, garlic, butternut squash, maple syrup, pepper, parmesan cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.