Baked rigatoni with acorn squash, kale and ricotta (with optional pancetta party)
This delicious, melting and beautifully autumnal pasta bake can be a simple, comforting supper dish or a seriously ritzy dinner if you jujj it with garlic breadcrumbs and/or pancetta and girolles. A total a crowd pleaser. Serves 4-6.
Ingredients
1kg crown prince, butternut squash or pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
300g cherry tomatoes, halved
6 garlic cloves, 2 bashed to a paste, 4 bashed and left whole
1 dried chilli, crumbled, or a few pinches dried chilli flakes
½ bunch sage, leaves picked
4 tbsp olive oil
300g kale
400g rigatoni
250g ricotta
125g grated parmesan, plus extra to sprinkle
For the optional sexy topping
A large handful girolles
100g diced pancetta
Crispy, garlicky breadcrumbs
Recipe
Preheat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/400F/gas 7. Place the squash, tomatoes, garlic, chilli and sage in a roasting tray, season generously, then drizzle over the oil and mix well with your hands so that every bit of squash is coated. Put in the oven for 30-40 minutes, shaking the tray occasionally, until the squash is a little crisp and the tomatoes falling apart.
Meanwhile tear the kale leaves from their stems and roughly chop. Put a big pan of salted water onto boil and blanch the kale until tender, a few minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and leave to cool in a colander. Bring the water back up to the boil and cook the rigatoni for a couple of minutes less than it says on the packet, so that it is still a little firm to the bite.
Squeeze any remnants of water from the kale and finely chop. Beat the ricotta and half the parmesan together with a fork, season well and stir half through the kale.
Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid and return to the pan. Stir in the kale and add enough cooking water so that you have a deliciously wet sauce coating the pasta. Empty into a big baking dish and scatter over the roasted squash, tomatoes and sage. Dollop over the remaining ricotta mixture, pushing it down into the pasta.
At this stage if you want your pasta bake to be elevated into a seriously sexy FEAST (!!!) pan-fry the girolles and pancetta in another tablespoon of oil and sprinkle over the pasta with fried breadcrumbs and the rest of the parmesan, drizzle with a little oil and bake for 15-20 minutes until the parmesan has melted and the top is golden brown. I love this with a fresh green salad. It is OUTRAGEOUS!