Leftover Butternut Squash Pasta with Turkey combines savory and sweet flavors in an easy to make pasta recipe. A great way to use leftovers! Disclosure: the wine suggested to pair with the meal was provided as a complimentary sample.
It’s always a good idea to have recipes for leftover turkey, even more so around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday time!
Our recipe for Leftover Butternut Squash Pasta with Turkey uses two things you might wind up have leftover after a holiday meal!
Our recipe starts with leftovers from our Savory Mashed Butternut Squash recipe as well as our Herb Roasted Turkey Breast. But you can use any leftover turkey you have, and same for the squash. In fact, you could use other types of squash, such as acorn squash.
Speaking of leftovers, if you have steak on hand, be sure to try our leftover steak pasta recipe!
Making this recipe
The leftover squash gets heated with a bit of broth and roasted garlic for a richly flavored, creamy sauce. Then you pop the turkey into the skillet to heat it up. Of course, you will be adding some Parmesan cheese too. The squash and turkey simmer together as your pasta cooks.
Toss the pasta with the leftover turkey and squash sauce as soon as its ready, and you have a delicious meal ready to go!
If you like this combination of squash and pasta, you might also like our Creamy Roasted Acorn Squash Pasta.
Wine pairing
Pinot Noir is a classic choice for turkey, and it works well with squash too. So I figured Pinot would be a natural pairing for our Leftover Butternut Squash Pasta with Turkey.
I opened the 2018 Pedroncelli Sonoma County Pinot Noir ($22, 13.5% ABV)
Classic black cherry and lead pencil on the palate. Violets on the nose. Medium bodied, with classic black cherry and lead pencil on the palate. Definitely some nuance to this Pinot, with layers of flavor. A very good Pinot for a moderate price point.
As expected, this Sonoma Pinot is a very good pairing for this pasta dish featuring leftover turkey and squash!
The Pedroncelli family has been making wine for four generations, with roots in Sonoma County since 1927. You can learn more about the winery on their website.
I have enjoyed a variety of Pedroncelli wines. Earlier this year I paired their friends.red with our Seitan Skillet with Peppers and Onions.
For a rundown of Thanksgiving wine pairing options, be sure to check out our What Wine Goes with Turkey article!
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Leftover Butternut Squash Pasta with Turkey
Leftover butternut squash pasta with turkey is a delicious way to use leftovers from Thanksgiving or other meals with extra squash. Leftover chicken could be used instead of turkey.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 35 mins
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cups leftover squash, mashed or puréed
- 6 ozs low sodium chicken broth (plus a a bit more if needed)
- 1 tbsp roasted garlic, or 2 cloves minced fresh garlic
- 1 ½ cups roasted turkey
- 12 ozs short pasta, such as ziti or farfalle (bowtie)
- 1 sage leaf, minced, or ½ tsp dried sage
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese plus more for passing at the table
Instructions
- Boil water in a large pot, to be ready for the pasta.
- Sauté the onion: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onion, stirring occasionally until it begins to soften, about 5 minutes.
- Add the squash: Stir the leftover squash into the skillet, along with the chicken broth and garlic. Simmer for a few minutes stirring occasionally.
- Cook the pasta: After adding the squash to the skillet, begin cooking the pasta in the boiling water according to package directions. Reserve ¼ cup of the pasta cooking water.
- Add the turkey along with the sage leaf to the skillet with the squash. Stir to combine the turkey and squash, adding a bit of reserved pasta cooking water if needed to achieve desired consistency. Add the ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, and stir to combine.
- Drain the pasta when it is cooked to your liking, and toss immediately with the leftover squash and turkey combination. Plate the pasta, and pass extra cheese at the table. Enjoy!
Notes
- We had leftover Savory Mashed Butternut Squash on hand to make this recipe. You could use other types of mashed or puréed squash that you might have.
- If you want to make some roasted garlic to use for this recipe, cut the root end off the head of garlic, exposing the bottom of the garlic cloves. Drizzle exposed cloves with 1 teaspoon of the olive oil. Wrap the garlic in aluminum foil, and roast for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees until the garlic has become soft and browned. Set the garlic aside to cool, and squeeze out what you need when it is needed for the recipe.
Jen
We made a big bird even though it was just the 5 of us so this is a perfect way to use up our leftovers. Thanks for making dinner easy tonight.
Cooking Chat
Gotta love Thanksgiving leftovers! I suspect a lot of people didn’t really scale down the bird much for the smaller crowd.
Eileen Kelly
A fabulous recipe for our leftovers. My hubs had no idea I even used our leftovers from Thanksgiving. This is one delicious pasta dinner.
Cooking Chat
Glad it went over well, Eileen!
Shanna
This was so flavorful and love that I can use up some of my leftovers from Thanksgiving.
Cooking Chat
Nice to be able to use two leftovers in one recipe, right?!?
Kushigalu
What an amazing recipe to try with leftovers. Happy that I found this one at right time. Thanks for sharing
Liz
this is such a creative way to use turkey leftovers! it sounds so savory and delicious! definitely bookmarking!
Cooking Chat
Thanks Liz, it’s a keeper alright!
Kenneth B Kobza
I added to the squash – stock mixture 3/4 T of chili powder and 3/4 T of cardamom to offset the sweetness of the squash and then topped the dish with roasted pine nuts.
I think they were important additions to a leftover
Cooking Chat
Those sound like tasty ideas!