Jamie's squash & penne bake with ricotta & golden breadcrumbs
40 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 2
About the recipe
When you’re after something super-comforting and hearty, this is the dish to turn to. Baked with herb-spiked breadcrumbs on the top, this old-school pasta bake is the ideal combination of oozy, stodginess (but in a good way!) and crisp perfection. Beautiful butternut squash is the hero of this recipe, and is a great source of vitamin A, which is needed to keep your skin and eyesight healthy. With bombs of crumbled ricotta dotted throughout, a good hit of heat from the chilli flakes, and a good grating of cheese to finish, you’ll have clear plates all round, guaranteed.
Ingredients
400g butternut squash or pumpkin
1 clove of garlic
olive oil
½ teaspoon chilli flakes
160g dried wholewheat penne
200g ricotta cheese
20g Italian hard cheese
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
75g breadcrumbs
extra virgin olive oil
Method
- Deseed, peel and roughly chop the squash or pumpkin into small chunks, then peel and finely chop the garlic.
- Heat a splash of olive oil in a medium pan on a medium heat, add the pumpkin, garlic and chilli flakes, cover with a lid and cook for around 20 minutes, or until softened.
- Cook the penne in a pan of boiling salted water for 10 minutes, or until al dente, which means that it should be soft enough to eat, but still have a bit of bite and firmness to it.
- Scoop out and reserve a cupful of the pasta cooking water, then drain and tip the penne back into the pan.
- Once softened, remove the squash or pumpkin pan from the heat, mash with a potato masher or fork, then season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.
- Preheat the grill to high.
- Add the mashed squash or pumpkin to the penne, crumble in the ricotta and grate in three-quarters of the Italian hard cheese. Mix together, adding a splash of cooking water to loosen if the mixture is quite thick. Check and tweak the seasoning, if needed.
- Tip into a baking dish (roughly 20cm x 25cm), and spread out evenly.
- Pick, roughly chop and place the rosemary leaves into a small bowl with the breadcrumbs and a splash of extra virgin olive oil, then toss to coat.
- Sprinkle evenly over the dish, grate over the remaining Italian hard cheese and grill for 5 to 10 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Delicious!
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