Tag Archives: Italian food

Beef, Cookbook reviews, Italian food

Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches

Growing up, there was always a jar of Dell’Alpe giardinera in the door of the fridge, as much of a staple in my house as ketchup and mustard and mayonnaise. But when my mom, stepdad and twin brothers moved from Illinois to Florida a few years ago, my stepdad was dismayed to realize that giardineria is apparently a regional food, popular with Chicago-area Midwesterners but impossible to find in Tampa. He now orders it in bulk online and even sent me a few jars from his stash earlier this year, cushioned in multiple layers of bubble wrap to survive the transatlantic trip. It’s good on all sorts of things, but it’s a must for Italian beef sandwiches.

When I got a review copy of Guy Fieri Food and saw this recipe for Chicago Italian beef sandwiches, I knew it would be one of those recipes that would make the book worth buying alone, and I wasn’t disappointed. But if that wasn’t enough, how could you not be tempted by recipes like Firecracker Wings, Bacon-wrapped Shrimp with Chipotle BBQ Sauce, Grilled Chicken Tortilla Soup with Tequila Crema, Grilled Romaine with Blue Cheese-Bacon Vinaigrette, Cajun Chicken Alfredo and Watermelon Pork Tacos? The flavors are as big and bold as Guy Fieri himself. What other celebrity chef has his tattoo artist do the illustrations for his cookbook or gets women’s lingerie thrown at them as if they were Tom Jones?

Guy Fieri says this should be the state sandwich of Illinois. This Illinois native agrees.

We’ve got a copy of Guy Fieri Food to give away! To enter, just leave a comment on this post. The giveaway is open to US residents only until Monday, 20 June and will close at midnight, when a winner will be randomly selected. Good luck!

Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches
adapted from Guy Fieri Food by Guy Fieri

Serves 6 to 8

If you were to order an Italian beef sandwich in a restaurant, it would probably be served with some potato chips or french fries. For serving at home, though, I’d suggest a potato salad or coleslaw.

You could also try cooking this in the slow cooker for 6 to 8 hours on a medium heat, or until the meat shreds apart with a fork, which is how my mother always makes Italian beef. Guy Fieri suggests that if you have any leftovers, try using it on a homemade pizza with grated pepper Jack cheese and giardiniera.

For the spice mix:
3 tablespoons Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons fine sea salt
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes

For the beef:
4 lb (1.8 kg) beef top round, with fat cap (I used a pot roast)
3 tablespoons canola oil
3 yellow onions, chopped
1 head of garlic, cloves peeled and chopped
1/2 cup (125 ml) red wine
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 cups (500 ml) beef stock
2 bay leaves

To serve:
6 sourdough hero or hoagie rolls, or baguettes or ciabattas, split and toasted
giardiniera
jarred or roasted red bell peppers, sliced 1/4 inch thick

Combine all the ingredients for the spice mix. Rub the meat with the spice mix, cover tightly with cling film and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 275°F (140°C).

Place a Dutch oven or roasting pan over a high heat on the stovetop and add the oil. When it’s smoking, add the beef and cook for 15 minutes, turning the meat often, until it’s nicely browned on all sides. Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add the wine, Worcestershire, stock and bay leaves and scrape up all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.

Transfer the pan to the oven and roast the meat for about 1 hour 30 minutes, uncovered, or until a thermometer inserted in the center of the meat reads 135°F (60°C). Remove the meat from the pan and set aside to let it cool. Cool the broth in the pan and remove the fat that rises to the top.

When the meat is cool, slice it very thin. Reheat the broth and add the meat back in.

To serve, place some meat on each roll, ladle some broth over the meat and top with the giardiniera vegetables and red peppers.

30-minute meals, Italian food, Pasta and noodles, Pork

Classic Spaghetti Carbonara

When I’m feeling especially nice, or especially burdened with working mom’s guilt, dinner planning tends to be child-focused. My kids are great eaters, but like most kids, they’d rather have white bread than wheat, white rice instead of brown, and regular pasta instead of whole grain. Since I knew I was going to put something white (i.e. unhealthy) on their plates, why not just do it up right with bacon, cheese and a few eggs,  à la carbonara?

I’ve been wanting to try pasta carbonara for years but never thought to search out a recipe. I ended up using a simple, straightforward version from a culinary school’s online recipe collection. Admittedly, I’ve never eaten pasta carbonara so I can’t tell you if their version is especially good. I can tell you that my kids gobbled it up, asking for more before their first helpings were even finished. My husband and I also enjoyed it, though we both agreed that extra freshly chopped parsley and cracked black pepper enhanced the dish.

Carbonara ingredients

Classic Spaghetti Carbonara
adapted from Baltimore International College’s School of Culinary Arts

Serves 4

To make this a 30-minute meal, put on your pasta water to boil immediately. While the water comes to a boil, you can chop your ingredients. Start the bacon frying, then throw your pasta in its water. The sauce comes together in just about the same time it takes the spaghetti to cook.

1/2 lb (225 g) bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1 lb (450 g) fresh spaghetti, cooked al dente (note: I used dry pasta)
4 large eggs, beaten
1 cup (100 g) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (or more, to taste)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large sauté pan over a medium heat, cook the bacon until crispy, about 6 minutes. Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels. Pour off all the oil except for 3 tablespoons. Add the garlic, season with black pepper and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the crispy bacon and the cooked pasta. Sauté for 1 minute.

Season the eggs with salt. Remove the pan from the heat and add the eggs, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble. Add the cheese and re-season with salt and pepper. Mound into serving bowls and garnish with parsley.

30-minute meals, Italian food, Pasta and noodles, Poultry

Pasta with Chicken, Tarragon and Cream

For years now I’ve been planning out the week’s meals in advance and shopping accordingly for all the groceries I need. You might imagine that this involves cookbooks or back issues of Gourmet casually strewn across the kitchen table while I flip through them over a pre-dinner glass of wine, the kids contentedly playing together and something chilled out on the stereo while I pick out all the fabulous new recipes I want to make.

Or at least that’s what I like to imagine.

The reality is that more often than not, instead of leisurely browsing through my cookbook collection with a glass of wine, I’ll find myself quickly scanning the blog recipe archives for something tried and tested or looking up a bookmarked recipe on a website with a half-cold cup of tea, all the while vowing to be more organized next week.

But meal planning is made much easier when you cook a whole chicken. It’s roasted on the first night, then stripped and used in a soup, stir-fry, risotto or any number of dishes the next night, with any last leftovers invariably finding their way into sandwiches or a quick quesadilla and the carcass used for stock. And when you can feed a family for two or even three nights with one chicken, paying extra for a free-range or organic bird is still good value. If you make poulet à l’Estragon (and please do – you will not be disappointed), this is a no-brainer dinner to make the next night with the leftovers, using all the same flavors. That’s two dinners for the week easily sorted then.

Pasta with Chicken, Tarragon and Cream
adapted from Real Food by Nigel Slater

Serves 4

If using leftover roast chicken, simply skip the step of browning the chicken and add the chicken after the cream and tarragon; you also won’t need the butter called for here either. If you’ve made poulet à l’Estragon and have any of the tarragon sauce left over from it, add that along with the cream for extra flavor and richness.

14 oz (400 g) spaghetti or linguine
8 chicken thighs (or diced leftover chicken, ideally from poulet à l’Estragon; see note above)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons (60 g) butter
1/2 cup (125 ml) dry white wine or extra-dry vermouth
2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) heavy cream
2 heaped tablespoons chopped tarragon leaves, plus extra to garnish
a squeeze of lemon juice

Set a large pot of water on to boil. Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water as per the packet instructions. Reserve a mugful of the pasta cooking liquid before draining.

Meanwhile, season the chicken with a little salt and pepper. Melt the butter over a medium heat in a large, shallow pan (one big enough to eventually accommodate all the cooked pasta as well), then brown the chicken on both sides until it’s golden brown, taking care not to let the butter burn. Remove the chicken and set aside.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon or so of butter. Add the wine or vermouth and vinegar, bring to the boil and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes to reduce a bit, then add the cream and tarragon. Return the chicken and any juices to the pan. (Alternatively, if using leftover roast chicken, simply add that in now.) Simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring now and then to make sure the cream doesn’t thicken too much. If the sauce is becoming too thick, add a little more wine or vermouth. Check that the chicken is cooked through and taste for seasoning. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and stir it through.

Add the drained pasta to the sauce in the pan and stir it well, making sure it’s all coated with the creamy sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the reserved pasta cooking liquid to loosen it a bit. Sprinkle with some chopped fresh tarragon and serve right away.

30-minute meals, Desserts, Italian food, Pasta and noodles

Penne alla Vodka and Ice Cream with Blonde Mocha Sauce

Did you hear about the snowstorms in Europe that were wreaking havoc on people’s Christmas travel plans? Well, that was us. Our hearts sank as the snow built up at Dublin airport on December 23, which shut the runway while we watched the plows go back and forth for hours (meanwhile, tractors were plowing the snow around the gates — an Irish solution to an Irish problem?). To make a long story of snowstorms, mechanical failures and missed connections short, it took us three days, two hotels and four airports (Dublin, Philadelphia, Charlotte, NC and Tampa) to finally reach my mother’s house in Florida at 8:30 p.m. on Christmas Day. After that ordeal, a stiff drink was in order — plus some boozy food for good measure and an easy, espresso-infused ice cream sauce to perk up weary travelers.

Penne alla Vodka
adapted from Catherine’s Italian Kitchen by Catherine Fulvio

Serves 4

For a twist on this Roman dish, Catherine Fulvio suggests adding smoked salmon or cooked prawns at the last minute and heating through, while in Nigella Lawson’s version of this recipe, she suggests adding cubed bacon. For a stronger vodka hit, I like to use Nigella’s method of adding the vodka to the drained pasta along with a knob of butter, then adding the boozy pasta to the sauce. This method has the added advantage that if you’re serving children, you can set aside a plain portion of pasta for them before adding the vodka to the rest.

1 lb (450 g) penne
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 or 2 red chillies or 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) water
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) vodka
1 cup (100 g) freshly grated Parmesan
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions in plenty of boiling salted water.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan that’s big enough to also hold the cooked pasta. Add the chillies and saute over a medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and the water. Simmer over a low heat for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon to prevent it from sticking to the pan and burning. If need be, add more water. Stir the cream into the chili and tomato mixture. Add the vodka and simmer for about 3 minutes more. (Alternatively, add the vodka to the drained pasta for a stronger sauce — see the note above.)

Drain the pasta and transfer to the pan with the sauce, then add the Parmesan cheese. Mix thoroughly, taste for seasoning and serve.

***

Blonde Mocha Sauce
adapted from Feast by Nigella Lawson

Serves 10

While I now prefer Catherine Fulvio’s vodka alla penne recipe to Nigella Lawson’s, this blonde mocha sauce is part of Nigella’s Supper alla Romana menu for easy entertaining from Feast (which is comprised of the pasta, this ricotta and pine nut salad and ice cream with this blonde mocha sauce). Nigella vows that even people who don’t like white chocolate like this sauce.

8 oz (225 g) white chocolate
2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream
3 tablespoons instant espresso powder
ice cream, to serve

Break the chocolate into chunks and put into a heavy-based saucepan on the lowest heat possible with all the other ingredients. When the chocolate has melted, take the pan off the heat and whisk vigorously to thicken the sauce. Pour the blonde mocha sauce into a pitcher or glass measuring cup, cover the surface directly with a thin skin of plastic wrap and when cool, stick it into the fridge for 4 to 6 hours to allow it to thicken and firm up. When you’re ready to pour it over the ice cream, take it out of the fridge, give it a good stir and use it straight from the pitcher.

Desserts, Italian food, Potatoes, Vegetarian main dishes

Gnocchi with Blue Cheese and Walnut Sauce and Guinness Gingerbread

Nigel Slater once described eating gnocchi as like eating a duvet. Sometimes that’s just what you need, whether it’s because you want something rib-sticking for a cold winter’s night or because you need to indulge in some unabashed, to-hell-with-the-calories comfort eating. With the mood in Ireland being very gloomy lately (you might have heard of the small matter of our €85 billion bailout and this week’s painful 2011 budget) and the weather being record-breaking cold, it was one of those times. Feeling low last week after another day of depressing news, I decided there was only one thing for it — baking. I turned to Nigella Lawson for some comfort food consolation, provided like only Nigella can, and settled on this Guinness gingerbread, which was perfect for this time of year. There’s nothing like some iconic Irish food — Guinness and the Cashel Blue cheese I used in the gnocchi — to lift a girl’s spirits.

Gnocchi with Blue Cheese and Walnut Sauce
adapted from A Kitchen Year by Paula McIntyre

Serves 4 to 6

Paula McIntyre’s original recipe calls for Bellingham Blue cheese, made in my neck of the woods in County Louth. Cashel Blue is an excellent substitute, but any good blue cheese will work here. If you want to give this a veggie boost, you could try adding some spinach, as in Nigel Slater’s recipe for baked gnocchi with spinach and Gorgonzola. This could stretch to feed six people if you’re serving it with something else, or just four greedy ones in need of some rib-sticking comfort food. It’s also decadent enough to serve as a vegetarian option for the holidays.

2 packs (about 2 lb/1 kg) store-bought gnocchi
2 tablespoons (30 g) butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup (60 ml) extra dry vermouth or dry white wine
1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable or chicken stock
1 cup (250 ml) double cream
4 0z (100 g) blue cheese
1 cup (100 g) chopped walnuts
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh thyme, to garnish

Get a large pot of water on to boil for the gnocchi.

Meanwhile, to make the sauce, heat the butter and oil in a saucepan and cook the onion on a medium heat until golden, about 10 minutes. Add the vermouth or wine and cook until reduced by half. Add the stock and boil until the liquid has reduced by half again. Add the cream and simmer until the sauce has the consistency of single cream. Crumble in the cheese and remove from the heat.

Heat a dry pan and toast the walnuts and cook for 1 minute, taking care not to let them burn, which can happen quickly. Add the walnuts to the sauce and season to taste.

Cook the gnocchi according to the packet instructions, drain and add to the sauce, stirring to make sure all the gnocchi is coated with the sauce. Garnish with some fresh thyme leaves and serve immediately.

***

Guinness Gingerbread
adapted from Nigella Kitchen by Nigella Lawson

Makes 24 small squares or 16 rectangles

It’s worth making this just for the smell of it baking in your oven alone. This was even better the day after I made it and was still holding up well on the third and fourth day too. Golden syrup is easily available in Ireland and the UK, but you can also order it online at Amazon.

1 1/4 sticks (150 g) butter, plus some for greasing
1 cup (300 g) golden syrup (such as Lyle’s)
1 cup (packed) plus 2 tablespoons (200 g) dark brown sugar
1 cup (250 ml) Guinness or other stout
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) sour cream
2 eggs

1 x 9 inch (23 cm) square baking tin or 1 foil tray approximately 13 x 9 x 2 inches (30 x 20 x 5 cm)

Preheat your oven to 325°F (160°C). Line your cake pan with parchment paper or greased foil, or grease your foil tray.

Put the butter, syrup, dark brown sugar, stout, ginger, cinnamon and ground cloves into a pan and melt gently over a low heat. Take off the heat and whisk in the flour and baking soda. You will need to be patient and whisk thoroughly to get rid of any lumps. Whisk the sour cream and eggs together in a measuring jug and then beat into the gingerbread mixture, whisking again to get a smooth batter.

Pour this into your cake/foil pan and bake for about 45 minutes. When it’s ready it will be risen in the middle and coming away from the pan at the sides. Let the gingerbread cool before cutting into slices or squares.

30-minute meals, Holidays, Italian food, Pasta and noodles, Soups and stews

Tortellini in Broth with Spinach

Inevitably after most holiday meals, I find myself walking to my car with a plastic grocery bag of slightly gooey, unattractive, and lukewarm bag of bones and meat scraps. Perhaps no one else wants to carry home such an odd parcel, or perhaps everyone knows of my frugality. Whatever the reason, I’m happy to turn the humble carcass into a hearty broth at home. If you browse through the recipes on this site, you’ll find that both Kristin and I use broth frequently. Although I’ve found a good store-bought brand (Swanson’s Organic Chicken Broth), nothing beats homemade.  It’s really cheap and easy to make.

For this year’s turkey broth I threw the leftover bones (with scraps attached) into a large stock pot and poured in water to cover. I roughly chopped and added one onion, one carrot, one celery stalk, and a handful of fresh parsley. For added zip, I threw in a pinch of dried thyme, a bay leaf, and about a tablespoon of salt. After bringing it to a boil, I let the liquid barely simmer for about three hours, strained it, and poured it into quart jars. After a night in the fridge, you can skim off any fat that rises to the top and pour the broth into whatever size container you wish. It will keep in the fridge for a few days and frozen for several months. I like to freeze it in muffin tins, then put the small broth-circles into larger storage bags, perfect for adding to sauces and stir-frys. I didn’t freeze all my broth this year, instead sacrificing a quart for this quick and kid-friendly meal. For extra cuteness, serve in bunny bowls as pictured below.

Tortellini in Broth with Spinach

Serves 4 as main course, 6 as first course

14 oz (400 g) dried tortellini
1 quart (1 liter) chicken or turkey broth
12 oz (340 g) fresh baby spinach
grated Parmesan cheese, to serve

Cook the tortellini according to the package directions. Drain the tortellini and set it aside.

While the pasta cooks, bring the broth to a simmer. Depending on the broth you are using, you may need to add salt or pepper to taste.

After the tortellini is cooked, add the spinach to the broth and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring gently, until the spinach is wilted. To serve, divide the broth, spinach, and tortellini between bowls. Top each bowl with grated Parmesan, if desired.

Beans, Italian food, Pork

Tuscan-style White Beans with Sausages and Peppers

My kids are crazy about beans. They’d eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is fine by me. You can’t cook many things that are healthier, easier or quicker than a can of beans. While canned beans are great, cooking dried beans is much cheaper and tastes better, too. And then there’s the BPA issue to think about. So I’m trying to use dried beans instead of canned and, in the process, finding some great recipes. This white bean recipe may be my favorite so far. Don’t be afraid by the amount of sage, it’s actually quite subtle tasting when cooked low and slow. If you have leftovers, try pureeing them with some olive oil and Parmesan cheese to make a spread perfect for crackers. I combined this batch with sausages and peppers as per Mark Bittman’s suggestion. The last-minute side of plain quinoa was a surprisingly perfect match with the beans.

A quick comment about beans, generally. I usually cook my beans in a slow cooker but the stove top works just as well. Don’t be afraid to add salt to the beans during cooking. I add a good teaspoon per pound (450 g) of beans after the beans are just tender, about halfway through cooking. Contrary to popular belief, salt doesn’t prevent the bean from cooking properly and results in a much better-tasting bean. And if you’re making a pot of beans, you may as well make a double batch. Once cooked, beans will keep in the fridge for several days or in the freezer several months, ready for pasta with chickpeas, eight-layer veggie burritos, or hummus at the drop of a hat.

Tuscan-style White Beans
adapted from How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman

Makes 8 servings

1 lb (450 g) dried white beans (cannellini, navy, Great Northern, etc.), washed and picked over
30 fresh sage leaves or 1 heaping tablespoon dried sage
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons minced or grated garlic
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Place the beans in a pot with water to cover by about 1 inch. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Add the sage. Reduce the heat, cover loosely and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans begin to soften. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Continue to cook until the beans are very tender, adding additional water if the beans dry out. Depending on the size and freshness of the bean, this will usually take 1 to 2 hours. Drain the cooking liquid if necessary, then gently stir in the garlic and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve hot, warm, or even cold.

***

Sausages with Peppers

Serves 6

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 hot and/or mild Italian sausages
2 bell peppers (one green and one red, yellow, or orange), sliced into thin strips

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over a medium heat. Add the sausages and cook for 10 minutes, turning the sausages halfway through the cooking time. Add the pepper strips and cook until the peppers are soft and the sausages are fully cooked, stirring frequently, about 10 more minutes. If the sausages take on too much color early in the cooking process, lower the heat or cover the skillet with a lid for a few minutes.

Italian food, Pasta and noodles, Vegetarian main dishes

Pappardelle with Butternut Squash, Blue Cheese and Pine Nuts

The secret foodie project I’ve been working on for the past two months with fellow blogger Caroline from Bibliocook is out! When I’ve been writing these past few weeks that I’ve been slaving away with work and was practically too busy to cook, that was only part of the story — Caroline and I were also madly working behind the scenes to launch the new Irish Food Bloggers Association at the Food Camp that kicked off the Savour Kilkenny Food Festival last week (if you’d like to read more about Ireland’s first-ever Food Camp, visit some of these blogs for their recaps; they were obviously taking better notes than me!). If you’re an Irish or Irish-based blogger writing about anything to do with food, please join us! Or just check out the site to explore what we hope will become the definitive list of all the food blogs in Ireland.

This will be my last post from Nigella’s new book for awhile, I promise. The one downside to launching the IFBA on October 22 was that I only found out late that night after getting back from Kilkenny that Nigella Lawson was doing a book signing in Dublin at noon the next day, and I was just too tired and too busy to go and have her sign my already well-thumbed copy of Kitchen. Looks like I’ll have to wait until she writes her next book and try to catch her on that tour.

Pappardelle with Butternut Squash, Blue Cheese and Pine Nuts
adapted from Kitchen by Nigella Lawson

Serves 4

This is a first cousin to this risotto with roasted butternut squash, bacon and blue cheese (I wouldn’t be averse to adding some bacon to this pasta dish). Nigella notes that the sauce can be made 1 day ahead — simmer until the squash is tender, then transfer to a nonmetallic bowl to cool. Cover and refrigerate, then reheat gently in a saucepan and proceed as directed. The sauce can also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months — just defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat gently.

1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 large butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 1‑inch cubes
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tablespoons Marsala
1/2 cup (120 ml) water
salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon dried sage)
18 oz (500 g) pappardelle or other robust pasta
1 cup (100 g) pine nuts
5 oz (125 g) soft blue cheese, crumbled

Fry the onion in the olive oil over a medium heat in a large, heavy-based pan that can accommodate all the pasta later. After about 10 minutes, add the paprika. Add the cubed butternut squash, then add the butter, stirring everything together well in the pan. Add the Marsala and water. Once the mixture starts to simmer, put the lid on, turn down the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the squash is tender but still holds its shape. Season to taste (keeping in mind that the cheese will be salty too), then sprinkle the sage into the squash mixture, reserving some to garnish.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water according to the packet instructions. Toast the pine nuts in a separate hot, dry pan, tip them into a bowl and set aside.

Before you drain the pasta, reserve a mugful of the cooking water. Add the drained pasta to the squash and slowly stir to combine. Add some of the pasta cooking water to help the sauce emulsify, then add the blue cheese and half the pine nuts. Gently combine, then sprinkle the remaining pine nuts and sage on top and serve.