Roasted butternut squash with fusilli pasta and grated cheese makes a wonderful pasta gratin. And guess what: no need to make bechamel sauce!
Will any other variety of squash work?
There are so many varieties of squash, with some wonderfully descriptive names, that it boggles your mind looking at autumnal market stalls or even supermarket shelves. Spaghetti, acorn, crown prince, kabocha, banana and harlequin, and that’s before we get onto pumpkins, which are squashes as well.
Those are all so called winter squashes, hence ‘autumnal’ market stalls, but as if that was not enough, we have summer squashes aka courgettes, patty pans and marrows. The squash family is huge!
But winter squashes, of which butternut is one, are what we have in mind in this recipe. They are not all the same though some might say they are all equally bland in flavour. I say they just easily respond to seasoning – the chicken of the vegetable world.
They differ in texture however, with some more starchy and creamy, while others are stringy and much more watery. Acorn and spaghetti belong to the latter type whereas butternut, kabocha and crown prince have dense, mashable flesh. That is not only my personal preference but it suits this pasta bake recipe best.
So if you can’t get butternut (though it is in fact the most popular variety, pumpkins around Halloween aside), pick kabocha or crown prince.
No bechamel pasta bake
The classic pasta bakes with lasagne at the forefront usually feature bechamel sauce. And even though I don’t think it’s an awful hardship to cook up a roux, whisk in milk and cook it down with a little nutmeg, there is a fine shortcut to employ here.
Crème fraiche works a treat. Stir it through pasta, or even potatoes, vegetables or rice, and it looks and tastes almost like you’ve been whisking and stirring the sauce for hours. If you want to make it a little richer, add some cream cheese.
A tip here: for a tasty, no-effort pasta or pasta bake, use a flavoured creamy cheese like Boursin or a creamy goat’s cheese, flavoured or unflavoured (chèvre).
Squash the squash
Roasted squash is soft and delicious but to make for a creamier texture of the pasta gratin, I advise to squash some of the squash – that’s to say, mash it with a potato masher. If you think that texture will be the ticket, go ahead and smash it all but I do like to see some caramelised, intact squash dice too.
Wholewheat or white pasta?
There is no question that brown pasta is healthier, with higher fibre content, more nutrients retained through less refined processing of the flour, and lower glycaemic index as a result.
The truth about the taste though is harsh: it’s not as tasty as white pasta. It’s mushy rather than chewy and springy, and it does not absorb the sauces or dressing as well. No Italian Nonna would dream of using wholemeal flour for their tagliatelle.
But if you want a pasta dish that is nutritionally virtuous, use wholemeal in the recipe. The key advice is to undercook the pasta: not only because it will cook further in the oven but also to stop it from getting mushy. And when the top of the dish gets cheesy-crispy, you’ll forget the fusilli is not white.
More pasta bake recipes
Fennel and spinach lasagne rolls, a pasta bake with gorgeously layered flavours of salty feta mixed into mild fennel, and creamy spinach sauce as a background to the rolled up, stuffed lasagne sheets.
Herby courgette pasta bake, with roasted garlic and Pecorino, simple and super-tasty. The best thing to do with courgettes? Bake them with pasta!
Baked ziti, penne or rigatoni with bacon and roasted aubergine: it does not drown in cheese or tomato sauce, and it is not a million calories like your usual pasta bake.
More winter squash recipes
Easy crown prince squash and chicken traybake marinated with shawarma-style spices, honey and Greek yoghurt. Perfect autumn meal, healthy, low effort and versatile for serving with flatbread or in lettuce cups.
Kabocha squash gratin, a creamy, cheesy, delightfully comforting winter dish using a lesser known squash, also known as Japanese pumpkin. The recipe is thoroughly homely though: kabocha slices baked in cream and cheese flavoured with thyme.
Five-spice butternut squash in cheesy custard, with orange rayu (Japanese chilli oil) is precisely the treatment the squash needs to be a great dish. No surprise, it’s a recipe from Ottolenghi.