Roast pumpkin, blue cheese and sage baked macaroni
Elly McCausland's baked pumpkin macaroni cheese recipe is the perfect dish to snuggle up to on a chilly evening, packed with flavour from blue cheese, aromatic sage and mellow nutmeg. To make this dish vegetarian, swap the Parmesan for a similar vegetarian cheese, and check that your blue cheese is free from animal rennet.
Ingredients
- 500g of pumpkin , prepared weight, deseeded and cut into 4cm chunks (you can peel if the skin is very thick, but I usually leave it on)
- 20 sage leaves , finely chopped, plus 5 whole leaves for garnish
- 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 40g of butter
- 40g of plain flour
- 500ml of semi-skimmed milk
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg , freshly grated
- 125g of blue cheese , crumbled
- 225g of macaroni pasta
- 40g of breadcrumbs
- 4 tbsp of grated Parmesan
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5
2
Toss the pumpkin pieces with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, the paprika, garlic, and half the sage
3
Roast for 30 minutes or until tender, tossing occasionally so the pieces brown evenly
4
Meanwhile, heat the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring for a minute. Pour in the milk gradually, whisking constantly, then simmer for 5 minutes until you have a thick white sauce
5
Remove from the heat, grate in the nutmeg and stir in the blue cheese. Season to taste
6
Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water for around 7 minutes, or until just al dente (you want it to be slightly undercooked as it will cook further in the oven). Drain and add to the cheese sauce; mix well
7
Pour the macaroni into an oven dish and mix with the roast pumpkin
8
Mix the breadcrumbs with the remaining sage and the Parmesan. Scatter over the top of the pasta in the dish and bake for 20 minutes
9
Leave to rest for a couple of minutes before serving. Garnish with the remaining sage leaves and serve with a fresh green salad (peppery leaves like watercress and rocket are good at cutting through the rich cheese)
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Roast pumpkin, blue cheese and sage baked macaroni
