Butternut squash, chicken sausage, and Gruyere cheese bake together with pasta and arugula to form the coziest winter casserole. This dish is simple to prepare, and satisfies all comfort food cravings without being too rich. It’s cheesy, it’s saucy, and it’s a flavor combination you’ll want to keep on repeat.
Like most people, I love all things that involve cheese and pasta, especially if they’re baked together. I’m also a fan of making easy dinners that are well rounded and only involve making one thing. Enter: this casserole. It’s got carbs, protein, vegetables, and cheese (a category on its own, obviously), and it forms together beautifully.
Inspiration for this dish
This dish came about because I fell in love with the harvest pasta sauce from Trader Joe’s. (I bought enough jars to last an entire year. No regrets.) Butternut squash and pumpkin may sound like a unique thing to combine with pasta, but believe me, they’re made for each other. I wanted to create something a bit more interesting than just plain pasta with sauce, so I grabbed a few other ingredients from my fridge that seemed like they’d go well together and boom… this dish was born.
Have you seen these at your local Trader Joe’s? Definitely pick them up. You won’t regret it!
If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby, you can use almost any type of pasta sauce and this will still be delicious. (If you use a tomato-based sauce, I’d omit the rosemary though. The rosemary goes best with a squash-based sauce, which I recommend using in this case.) Any type of pasta will work with this recipe. I’m a sucker for fun shapes, but feel free to use your favorite type of pasta. (My “favorite” is the bag of pasta that’s already in my cupboard and requires zero trips to the grocery store. Ha.)
Let’s get cooking!
This dish comes down to a few simple steps:
1: Boil pasta.
2: Sauté onion and sausage, then add in arugula, spices, and sauce.
3: Combine cooked pasta with heated sauce combo, top with Gruyere, and bake. Easy peasy! (Details are provided below.)
The start of something good…
Covered in Gruyere and ready to bake…
This is happiness. Oh yes.
A big bowl filled with melty, cheesy, cozy goodness.
I’ll leave you with a cooking secret. When in doubt, just add Gruyere cheese. Everything is better with Gruyere cheese. The end.
Baked Fall Zucchette Butternut Squash Pasta
Delicious fall flavors bake together for the ultimate comfort meal! Trader Joe's pasta with butternut squash sauce, chicken sausage, arugula, and topped with Gruyere cheese!
Ingredients
- 1 bag (14 oz) Fall Zucchette Pasta (from Trader Joe's) Can sub any pasta!
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- 3 large fresh chicken sausages (uncooked), casings removed
- 1 large sweet yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced
- 1 shallot, diced
- 2 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced (Can sub sage)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 1/2 oz arugula (about half of a Trader Joe's bag)
- 1 1/2 jars (about 30 oz) Harvest Pasta Sauce Any pumpkin/butternut pasta sauce will work
- 1 1/2 cups Gruyere cheese, shredded (about 1/2 lb/8 oz)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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In a medium saucepan, cook pasta in salted water according to package directions.
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While pasta is boiling, heat a large pan over medium heat. Add 2 tbsp avocado oil and chopped onion. Sauté 5 minutes until onion starts to soften. Add chicken sausage (without casings), diced shallot, garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Cook uncovered until sausage is thoroughly cooked, approximately 5 minutes. Stir occasionally and use stirring spoon to break sausage into smaller pieces.
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Once sausage is cooked, reduce heat to low and add arugula, tossing until it wilts. Add 1 1/2 jars of sauce and stir to combine everything. Cook over low heat approximately three minutes, until sauce has heated a bit.
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In a 2 1/2 qt. casserole dish, combine drained pasta with butternut sauce combo. Top with shredded Gruyere cheese and bake for 25 minutes. Once timer goes off, set oven to broil (high) to brown the cheese. This should take about 1 minute. Don't walk away because it can quickly burn. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
If you don't have the pasta and sauce from Trader Joe's, you can substitute different brands.
If you liked this recipe, be sure to check out my vegetable and sausage gratin. It’s currently the most popular recipe on this site!
Great recipe all together! The pasta alone is rather bland though. I tried it after boiling. TJ’s should have added more flavor…BUT this recipe made all the flavors and textures come together. I used Italian shredded cheese instead of Gruyere and left out arugula and rosemary (I forgot.,.oops). But overall, my two year old and I loved this! Eating it at lunch now…yummmm(:
Thanks!
Michelle, it makes me so happy to hear this! Thank you so much for the comment, and I’m very happy to hear that you (and your little one) enjoyed the recipe!!
Great recipe. Only complaint is that I got rosemary and in the step by step cooking instructions it doesn’t say to add it anywhere.
Hi Chelsea,
I’m so sorry about that! I just edited it so that doesn’t happen again.
This dish is AMAZING 10/10 recommend!!
Thank you!! <3
Do you think a Carbonara sauce would complement this pasta?
I think with this pasta’s odd shape, carbonara probably won’t cook up quite as silky as it would with a more even shape. But, I do think the flavors would work well together.
Just made this tonight with a few substitutions (because of what we had in the fridge). Use an Apple and Gouda Chicken Sausage which added a delicious smokey flavor to the bake. Also, we only had one jar of the sauce so added in some extra pasta water. Added some time to let it simmer and rethicken up again but turned out delicious! Hoping to snag a few more of the Trader Joe’s sauce so we can make this again this fall!
Hi Logan,
Thanks for your comment, and I’m so glad to hear that you liked it!
We loved this recipe!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for your comment.
You rock!! OMG I have never rated ANYTHING as delicious as this!!! So so so delicious and yummy!! Bookmarking your recipes- TODAY! Thank you!! 🙏
Thank you so much!!
I made this recipe exactly as written and it was delicious! I was really craving some comfort food and this was perfect. It was so good, the leftovers mysteriously disappeared before I could get at them.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for commenting.
What a wonderful recipe! Substituted chopped portabello mushrooms instead of chicken sausage.
Loved it and will definitely be making it again, thank you!
What a wonderful recipe! Substituted chopped portabello mushrooms instead of chicken sausage.
Loved it and will definitely be making it again, thank you!
Great recipe. I made a few substitutions (baby kale instead of arugula, shredded mozzarella instead of gruyere, no rosemary and only one jar of sauce), but it came out delicious. Great fall comfort food.
I saw this pasta at Sprouts as a limited edition item. It looked interesting and different so we bought it and looked up online and this recipe came up. This is now a favorite in this house. The only thing I did different was I doubled up the fresh Garlic. Outstanding recipe, Thanks for sharing. Went out bought more Sprouts pasta and TJ sauce to make on occasion throughout the year
Delicious! Husband couldn’t stop repeating how good it was. I used local butcher-made bratwurst which I’m sure increased the flavor. Will make it again next Fall when the sauce is available. And, make sure to stock up with extra jars.
Adding butcher-made bratwurst sounds like a brilliant idea!
This recipe is delicious! I’m a vegetarian so I used broccoli instead of sausage and mozzarella and pecorino for the cheese! AMAZING!!!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
The flavor is impeccable!! Never have I ever posted a review on an online recipe. But this one deserved to be the first!! Finding uncooked chicken sausage was a challenge but Whole Foods came in clutch. Also, I accidentally only grabbed one jar of the harvest pasta sauce. So had to combine it with the harvest soup. It worked well! Also, I used a bit more cheese to evenly layer the recipe and it was amazing!! (Who doesn’t love cheese?!?). I’m hoping to grab some more of the ingredients before TJ is out.
Jas, first online recipe review?! I feel so honored! I’m so happy to hear that you loved it – thank you for sharing!
This was even more incredible than I thought! We used Italian sausage, spinach, and Italian blended cheese as substitutes. The rosemary and sausage really took this to the next level! I bought the sauce and pasta from Trader Joe’s but was worried the combo would be too bland. I searched recipes for them and this was the only one that popped up and had great reviews so gave it a shot. The hubby, myself, and both kids kept talking about how delicious this was! We will definitely make this again. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Brianna, I’m so happy to hear that you and the fam loved it! Thank you for sharing!
This was very good. Going back to TJ for more pasta and sauce. My family loved it. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Delicious recipe! Really good flavors. The only thing is that my 2.5qt casserole dish spilled over in the oven. Also next time I would only cook the pasta for 7 min (recommends 8min) because the pasta was just a tad too well done for my liking. Overall 4/4 in my family liked and ate it! Would definitely make it again!
Wow! Thank you! So yummy! I did substitute spinach for the arugula and I used Parmesan shredded cheese. Will definitely make again!