I had bought butternut squash and sage to make a delicious Jamie Oliver beef stew, but at the last minute had decided to make a Massaman Beef Curry instead.
Left with a butternut squash and sage, I decided to experiment with making a pasta bake that used these ingredients and the pack of bacon lurking in the back of the fridge.
My boys love a cheese sauce, so I thought that would be ideal to bring it all together and add an extra flavour dimension to the dish. We love a really cheesy sauce so do feel free to reduce the strength and/or amount of cheddar that you use.
I prefer to use back bacon, but you could also use streaky or pancetta, as long as you get it nice and crispy before you add it to the sauce.
Serves 4-6
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
800g butternut squash
200g smoked back bacon
3 tablespoons of finely chopped sage leaves
300g penne pasta
50g butter
5 tablespoons of plain flour
400ml milk
250g mature cheddar
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
Pinch of nutmeg
Black pepper
Roast the butternut squash
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
- Peel the butternut squash and remove the seeds. Cut into 2cm chunks.
- Place the diced squash in a baking tray and drizzle over 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix well.
- Place the baking tray in the hot oven and cook the squash for 30-40 minutes until the edges of the squash are lovely and brown. (If they are not starting to brown after 20 minutes, then increase the heat to 210°C).
- Remove the squash from the oven and stir in the finely diced sage leaves.
- Reduce the oven heat to 180°C.
Cook the pasta
- Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain and spread over the bottom of an ovenproof dish.
Cook the bacon
- Place the bacon in the bottom of a large frying pan, being careful not to overlap the slices if possible..
- Bring the frying pan up to temperature, over a medium heat.
- Cook the bacon until it is nice and brown on both sides.
- Remove from the pan onto kitchen roll, so to ask up any excess fat.
Make the cheese sauce
- Grate the cheese.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat.
- Stir in the flour and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Now slowly add the milk, stirring all of the time.
- Once all of the milk has been added, use a whisk to ensure the sauce is lovely and smooth.
- Stir in the Dijon mustard and grate in some nutmeg.
- Add the cheese and stir until it's melted into the sauce.
- Season with black pepper.
- Increase the heat slightly and stir for a few minutes until thickened. Set aside.
Assemble and cook the pasta bake
- Mix the squash and sage into the pasta.
- Using a pair of kitchen scissors or a sharp knife, cut the bacon into small pieces. Add to the pasta and mix well.
- Pour over the cheese sauce.
- Grind over a generous amount of black pepper and gently stir/mix until the ingredients are evenly distributed (being careful not to break up the squash).
- Place in the hot oven and cook for 25 minutes until the top of the pasta bake is nice and golden.
