Burnt Butter & Red Wine Meat Sauce with Portobello Mushrooms & Butternut Squash

I have been dying to make an alternative meat sauce rather than your typical (but always delicious) red sauce. I usually use fresh butternut squash but for this dish, frozen will work best.

Again, not too wordy tonight. :) Enjoy the recipe. I thought it made a great dinner.

1 cup of frozen butternut squash (thawed), 1 cup of sliced portobello mushrooms (caps and stems), 1/2 lb of lean ground beef (or whatever you have, i do like the fattier kind), 1/2 cup of red wine (fruitier type preferred), 1/2 cup of water, 3 Ts of butter, 1 T of sugar, 1/2 T of kosher salt.

In a medium sized pot, melt 3 ounces of butter on medium heat. It will take about 15 minutes before the butter becomes burnt. It will turn to a nice deep brown hue.

Yup, that's only 3 tablespoons of butter. I will be working it off tomorrow.




Nope, not burnt yet.



Now we're talking.



Brown your beef. Always remind me of Brown Cow from one of my favorite childhood books. Once it's all nice and brown, remove the beef and set aside.



How decadent does that look? How can this not be the cure to blues?!



Add your 'shrooms and squash. Stir around a bit.



Then add your 1/2 cup of red wine, 1/2 cup of water, sugar and salt. Let simmer for about 15-20 minutes so that all the ingredients are well fused (is this even a verb often used to describe food?!) together.



I served mine with a bed of salad (romaine lettuce, pea shoots, grape tomatoes) and pour over whole wheat penne. YUM, yum, yummm!