1 hr 40 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 2
About the recipe
Sweet, nutty and comforting, this silky squash pasta dish is a proper taste of autumn. Ribbons of homemade pasta and buttery autumnal squash sauce, spiked with warming spices and topped with a crunchy chestnut and sage pangrattato – what could be better?
Ingredients
1 autumn squash, such as onion, butternut, kabocha
olive oil
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 pinch of chilli flakes
1 tiny pinch of ground cinnamon
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
1 knob of unsalted butter
20g Parmesan cheese
PASTA
200g Tipo 00 flour, plus extra for dusting
2 large free-range eggs
PANGRATTATO
1 thick slice of stale bread
1 clove of garlic
½ a bunch of fresh sage (10g)
100g vac-packed chestnuts
Top Tip
If you don’t have a pasta machine, don’t worry – you can use a rolling pin. You’ll need to use some muscle here as it can be quite tricky rolling out a lump of dough to the thickness of a playing card. To get around it, roll lots of small pieces of pasta rather than a couple of big ones. To make tagliatelle, fold the pasta sheet over itself and use a sharp knife to slice it into lengths, just over ½cm wide.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
- Scrub the squash (there’s no need to peel it), then halve and scoop out the seeds (see Leftover Love tip). Slice into wedges or 1cm-thick rounds, and place in a large roasting tin with a pinch of sea salt and black pepper and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. In a pestle and mortar, bash the coriander seeds and chilli to a fine powder, then add to the tray along with the cinnamon. Grate in half the nutmeg, and toss well to coat.
- Place in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes, or until golden and tender, shaking the tray halfway through.
- To make the pasta, place the flour on a board or in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth.
- Using the tips of your fingers, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined.
- Knead the dough for 3 to 4 minutes, until you get a smooth, pliable dough – it shouldn’t be sticky. Cover with a bowl or cloth and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- Make a pangrattato: tear the bread into a food processor, peel and add the garlic clove, pick in the sage leaves and add a drizzle of oil, then blitz into breadcrumbs. Pulse in the chestnuts.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, sprinkle in the garlicky breadcrumbs and cook for 15 minutes, or until golden and crisp.
- To roll out your pasta, clamp a pasta machine firmly to a clean flour-dusted surface (feel free to use a rolling pin – see tip). Divide the dough in half and press one portion out flat, then start to roll it through the pasta machine at the widest setting, lightly dusting with flour if it sticks.
- Click the machine down a setting and roll the dough through again. Keep rolling the pasta through the machine, working it through all the settings, from the widest down to around the narrowest until you have a long sheet of pasta, the thickness of a playing card, lightly dusting with flour as you go.
- Lay the pasta sheet on a flour-dusted surface and slice it horizontally down the middle so you have two equal-sized sheets of pasta, then feed one sheet through the tagliatelle setting on your pasta machine.
- Set the tagliatelle aside on a flour-dusted tray, and repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bring a large pan of salted water up to the boil.
- Meanwhile, remove the squash from the oven. Weigh 300g of the squash and save the rest for another time (see Leftover Love tip). Scoop the flesh out of the skins and place into a bowl, then mash the flesh up with the back of a fork.
- Place the butter and the mashed squash in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once sizzling, stir in a splash of the boiling salted water. Finely grate and stir in most of the Parmesan, then reduce the heat to low.
- Add the fresh pasta to the pan of boiling water and cook for about 1 minute, or until al dente. Using tongs, transfer the pasta to the sauce, tossing and loosening with splashes of the starchy cooking water, if needed.
- Divide the pasta between bowls, and serve with a sprinkling of the garlicky pangrattato and the remaining Parmesan, grated on top.
- You’ll only need about 300g of the roasted squash, so tear the leftovers into salads, pastas or risottos over the coming week.
- Use your leftover pangrattato for sprinkling on soups, salads and stews in the coming days.
- Instead of throwing the squash seeds away, turn them into a tasty topper or simple snack. Bake at 180°C/350°F/gas 4 for 5 to 10 minutes, or until lightly golden. Leave to cool, then store in an airtight container until needed.
Squash is the epitome of autumn for me – have a look around for different varieties or grow your own. I love North Georgia candy roaster and Lunga di Napoli varieties, too.
If you don’t have Tipo 00 flour, use plain flour instead.
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