Creamy Baked Rigatoni With Butternut Squash & Goat Cheese
Updated Jun 03, 2026
Pretty much everything I love in life is represented in this dish. There is roasted butternut squash with sweet, browned edges; tangy goat cheese; crispy bacon; sage and sweet caramelized onions, all tied together with a lick-the-pot delicious browned butter bechamel sauce.
It might seem like quite a few steps – roasting the squash, caramelizing the onions, cooking the bacon and making the sauce – but it’s all mostly hands-off and I found it very easy to orchestrate the multitasking. Not to mention totally worth it.
I recommend you put on some nice music, pour a glass of wine, ruffled apron optional but encouraged. Enjoy the process.
The sauce starts with flour whisked into butter, called a roux. Milk is slowly whisked in, and the sauce bubbles until thick, making a bechamel sauce; one of the mother sauces of French cooking, and the foundation of many other sauces.
Allowing the butter to brown before adding the flour imparts a gorgeous toasty flavour that complements the sweet squash and sage beautifully.
I am sharing with you my secret trick for caramelizing onions. I sprinkle them with sugar and cook over relatively high heat, which coaxes them into caramelized submission much faster than the usual low-and-slow method, without any sacrifice in flavour or texture. Double the batch, and have leftovers for sandwiches, burgers, or topping pizza.
Creamy Baked Rigatoni with Butternut Squash & Goat Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 medium butternut squash peeled, seeded, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb rigatoni
- 3 slices bacon cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 medium onions halved then thinly sliced crosswise
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp flour
- 3 cups milk
- pepper
- nutmeg a pinch
- 2 ounces goat cheese crumbled (1/2 cup)
- ¼ cup fresh sage leaves loosely packed, finely chopped
- ⅓ cup fresh breadcrumbs or panko
- salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Toss the squash with the olive oil and spread in a single layer on a baking sheet; season with salt. Bake until tender and caramelized, about 25 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the rigatoni as directed; drain and set aside.
- In a medium pan over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon. Pour out all but 1–2 tablespoons of the fat. Add the onions, sprinkle with the sugar, and cook over medium-high heat until meltingly tender and deeply caramelized, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Stir in the balsamic vinegar; set aside.
- While the onions caramelize, make the sauce. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, cooking until it smells nutty and turns a warm brown. Whisk in the flour and cook 2 minutes. Very slowly pour in the milk, whisking constantly. Cook over medium-low heat until the sauce thickens, about 8 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- In a very large bowl, toss the pasta with the sauce, roasted squash, bacon, caramelized onions, goat cheese and sage. Transfer to a large baking dish and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs. Reduce the oven to 375°F (190°C) and bake until the edges are crispy and the breadcrumbs are golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this yesterday and wanted to share my feedback on the recipe. My one change was using penne since I had everything on hand except the rigatoni, and while it was fine, I do think rigatoni would have been better. My breadcrumbs didn’t get brown and toasty since they weren’t tossed in butter or anything, but I found the dish got a bit too dry with baking it and next time I make this I would just omit baking it altogether. Maybe toast some seasoned breadcrumbs in butter and sprinkle on top for crunch. I also wanted more bacon so next time I’d double the bacon amount so one could have some jn nearly every bite. Great flavors and good instructions, we just found that we would modify some steps of making again 🙂
I have come back to this recipe time and time again. I’ve made it over a dozen times. And it’s not just wonderful on my thanksgiving table. It’s also PERFECT for potlucks and can easily be made vegetarian. And your tip of caramelizing onions has been locked in my memory bank for life. I’m shocked no one else has commented about how good it is – great job!!
Hi Cathleen, thank you so much! SO kind of you to come back and comment. Glad you love this recipe as much as I do 🙂