I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Cascade. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating. As always all opinions are 100% my own.
Hubby and I try to do “Date Night” a couple of times a month. Typically we take turns planning it and date night can actually get quite elaborate, even when we stay home (which is more often than not). Some of our favorite stay at home dates have been picnicking on the living room floor in front of the fireplace, learning to make our favorite dessert together, and highly competitive games of trivial pursuit.
No matter what we do there’s always food. Our favorite date night go-to meal is something we have fondly termed Squash Pasta. (recipe to follow)
The last thing anyone wants to do on date night though is the dishes. As a result a big criteria for us when planning date night is easy clean up. For example, everything has to be able to go into the dishwasher. That’s why I was perfectly happy when I was asked to try out Cascade Platinum Pacs.
I was even more interested in trying Cascade Platinum Pacs when I learned that they are specially formulated to eliminate the need to pre-wash dishes…lets be honest I never did this anyway and it showed on the inside of my dishwasher, but wait! They also help keep the inside of my dishwasher cleaner by preventing hard water film on dishwasher walls. BINGO! We’ve been using these Cascade Platinum Pacs for a little while now and I must say I am impressed. I’ve seen no more yucky build up inside my dishwasher.
Ok, so now for that Squash Pasta recipe, or more appropriately Butternut Squash Pasta. Bear with me as I spell this out for you, we make this so often I don’t measure anything. This is really good so I will do my best! You deserve to try it. It really doesn’t matter what kind of pasta you use. We’ve used fettucini, penne, bow ties… you just can’t go wrong. This is my all time favorite pasta dish that the hubs modeled after my love of a butternut squash ravioli dish at a local restaurant.
Butternut Squash Pasta
5 Tbsp salted butter
20 fresh sage leaves
3-4 Tbsp beef broth
1/4 c freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 Small Butternut Squash
-
First cut and cube your squash. Saute with a little olive oil or butter until it’s cooked to your liking. Get your pasta cooking too.
-
While the squash and pasta are cooking, in a separate, small sauce pot you are going to make your browned butter and sage sauce. Combine the 5 Tbsp of salted butter and the fresh sage leaves. Using a medium heat melt the butter and continue to stir occasionally until it turns a deep golden brown. You will need to stir it occasionally. Be careful not to burn it, it will burn easily once it’s browned. (the smell of browned butter is heavenly by the way… you will be drooling at this point).
-
Once it’s browned remove it from the heat.
-
Your sage leaves should be looking pretty crispy by now. Remove them from the butter and lay them out on a paper towel.
-
Add the beef broth to the browned butter and stir well.
-
Once your pasta is cooked and drained return it to the pot.
-
Stir in your butternut squash, your brown butter sauce and about a 1/4c freshly grated parmesan cheese.
-
Crush your sage leaves up on the paper towel. You can then either mix them right in the pot or sprinkle them on top for garnish with a little additional parmesan cheese after you plate it up (that’s how we do it).
When it’s all said and done you are going to have a few dirty dishes. The other thing I am loving about these Cascade Platinum Pacs is that they work really well even if those dishes have sat in your dishwasher for awhile. Because lets face it, while the dishes do manage to get into it, who is really thinking about running the dishwasher on date night?
Now for some fun stuff! Cascade is having a “My Platinum” contest. It’s a four week Instagram contest. You can learn more about it by clicking here. Cascade has partnered with Top Chef and editor of Food & Wine magazine, Gail Simmons. Gail says it’s not just about the great-tasting recipe, presentation counts too. And I really believe it does. Date night is so much more fun when we take the time to dress our table, garnish our plates, and layout those pretty wine glasses.
Are you Following us on Facebook and Twitter? I’d love to have you. We are on Pinterest and Instagram too. Hope to see you there!