I decided I would give it a go and make my own version and I have loved it ever since. It is naturally loaded in calories but if you are feeling down or poorly this is a great tasty dish that will have you glowing on the inside. Recently I have been ill and this was all I could think of to bring me out of my gloomy self pity and it worked a treat.
Ingredients (to feed 4)
Dried macaroni pasta (250-300g)1 onion diced
1 packed of back bacon/ 8 rashers (can be smoked or unsmoked)
Butternut squash cubed (250g)
Breadcrumbs
For the cheese sauce
1/2 a pint (300ml) milk1-2 tbsp of plain flour
Knob of butter (1/2 - 1oz)
150g grated cheese
English mustard (2 pea sized drops)
Salt and Pepper
Method
§ Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
§ Prepare your butternut squash (or pumpkin). Peel away the skin to reveal the vivid flesh beneath and remove the seeds. Dice into 2cm chunks and put on to boil for 10 minutes.
§ Measure out the pasta by selecting a suitably sized ovenproof dish and covering the bottom of the dish with a healthy layer of the dried pasta. Don’t forget that pasta doubles in size once cooked. This is the way I measure out my pasta for these types of dishes; if you want to be really precise, I have provided a measure, but it really depends on the size of the appetites you are trying to satisfy.
§ Put your macaroni on to boil in salted water as per the packet instructions, but cook it for just less than the advised time. If it says cook for 10 minutes, only boil for 8. You want it to be almost there but not quite, otherwise it would over cook when you put it in the oven later. You can of course use other pasta shapes; penne, farfalle, fusili, conchiglie, even rigatoni would all be good shapes, if you don’t have any macaroni.
§ While your pasta and squash are cooking you want to cut up the bacon into strips and gently fry in a little oil for a couple of minutes, then add the onion, season with pepper only (as the bacon is salty enough) and gently fry for a further 2-3 minutes. You don’t want to overcook anything.
§ For the cheese sauce…first you need to make a basic white sauce. You start by making a roux, which involves equal quantities of butter and milk. You melt the butter in either a pan or microwaveable jug. Then add the flour and stir quite vigorously to make sure there are no lumps.
§ Little by little you add your milk, always stirring to ensure there are no lumps.
§ Once all the milk has been combined you heat until the sauce thickens.
§ Now add half the cheese and heat/stir until all melted into the sauce and then add the two pea sized amounts of English mustard (you do not want to ruin the dish with the over powering taste of mustard, so proceed with caution).
§ Season with salt and pepper then add the rest of the cheese; stir until all melted and combined.
§ You don’t want the sauce to be too thick, but then again you don’t want it to be too thin. It needs to be able to coat the pasta and add some luxury to the dish. If it is not thick enough you should add more flour, if too thick, add a little more milk. Remember you can always add more; you can never take away so keep a steady hand and taste, taste, taste!
§ Once you have made the sauce, everything is ready to combine, take your oven proof dish and put in the pasta, squash and bacon and onion mixture, mix up a little, then pour over the cheese sauce so everything is covered; give it another little mix.
§ Finally cover the top with breadcrumbs and place in the preheated oven on 180 for 15-20 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs have turned a golden brown colour.
Very comforting, very more-ish, this one will have people coming back time and time again.
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