Autumn Comfort Food | Butternut Squash, Sage and Red Pepper Courgetti

By the time work was finished on Friday an Autumn cold had taken hold of me. I don’t ‘do’ illness very well, so  when N asked me if I wanted anything from the supermarket (expecting the usual “box of tissues, vix and cold capsules” request) I rather surprised him by saying “yes please – butternut squash, sage, garlic and courgette!” I was craving Autumn comfort food!

You see about a month ago The Londoner posted a recipe for Pumpkin and Sage Courgetti and I’d immediately had an idea for an adaptation that I wanted to try. Suddenly this weekend it was all I could think about as I knew it would be cosy and flavourful; like a big hug in a bowl.

It also gave me a good excuse to try out my new spiralizer. I’d been using a julienne peeler to make vegetable pasta for a year with no complaints but couldn’t resist a special offer to pick up the gadget for only £2!

So here is my version of the ultimate guilt free Autumn comfort food.

Ingredients (serves 1)

Half a butternut squash
1 courgette
1 or 2 garlic cloves (I chucked in two – I WAS ill after all)
Salt and pepper
A handful of sage leaves
Olive oil
1 sweet red pepper
Half a packet of cubed pancetta
Half a vegetable stock cube
100ml water
2 tablespoons cream
Half a roll of goat’s cheese

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Peel your butternut squash and then chop it into slices. (You could leave the peel on at this stage and take it off after roasting, but I find this almost impossible to cut!)
• Once you’re done, give yourself a pat on the back… that’s the only challenging bit completed!
• To avoid a lot of washing up I line a roasting tray with tin foil and then put a bit of baking paper at the bottom. Yes I know this makes me a heathen, but did I mention avoiding washing up?

• Lay the slices of squash evenly in the tray, drizzle them with oil and then season with salt and pepper.
• Add the cloves of garlic (no need to peel them) and some sage leaves.

• Cut your sweet pepper into strips about a centimetre wide and leave these to one side.
• Roast the squash, sage and garlic in the oven for 40 minutes, then add the pepper to the tray for another 20 minutes.

• Meanwhile add a drop of oil to a saucepan and when it’s nice and hot add the pancetta.
• Cook it for a few minutes until the edges are beginning to brown, then set aside.

• Finally spriralize your courgetti. You could spiralize some carrot to add in too if you like!
• If you don’t own a spiralizer, check out my kitchen hack here!

• When the roasted veg is ready, squeeze the garlic out of it’s peel and add it to a blender/food processor with the butternut squash, sage and two thirds of the pepper strips.
• Boil the water and mix in the half cube of vegetable stock, then add this to the blender.

• Mix it all together on high speed until smooth. Then add the cream and mix again for 20 seconds.
• Pour the mixture into the saucepan that you used earlier for the pancetta.
• Add in the vegetable pasta, pancetta and remaining red pepper and stir it all together on a hot hob for 4 minutes until steaming hot.

• Ladle the mixture into a bowl and crumble over a little goats cheese.
• Curl up on the sofa under a blanket with the bowl and a fork and indulge in your (almost) guilt free comfort food!

 …it’s not the prettiest dish ever created, but it did make me feel better. So much better in fact that I cooked the other half of the squash in another batch the following day!

What is your go to comfort food when you’re ill? Have you tried vegetable pasta?