Pappardelle with pumpkin ragù

A hearty dish best made with pumpkin or one of the less-starchy squash. Serve it with a salad of bitter chicory or radicchio.

SERVES TWO INGREDIENTS

300g pumpkin flesh, or delicata or turban squash

75g butter

½ clove of garlic, crushed 15-20 sage leaves Nutmeg, for grating

3 spring onions, sliced 200g pappardelle or other pasta 50g toasted pine nuts or roasted pumpkin seeds

A chunk of parmesan for grating

METHOD

Cut the pumpkin flesh into chunks about the size of an olive. Put in a pan with 50g of the butter, the

garlic, four chopped sage leaves, a fat pinch of salt and two tablespoons of water. Cover tightly and cook gently for 20 minutes or until tender. Check occasionally and add more water if necessary, but if the pumpkin colours a little, so much the better.

Mash the flesh a little: you are aiming for a sauce consistency, so depending how starchy it is you may need to add yet more water. Season with lots of pepper and nutmeg.

Melt the rest of the butter in a small pan. Add the rest of the whole sage leaves and sizzle until the leaves start to shrink and shrivel slightly, then lift out on to a piece of kitchen paper. Cook the spring onions in the butter left in the pan (it will be brown now, but that is

fine). When the onion is tender, add it to the pumpkin.

Cook the pasta until just done, then drain, keeping a cupful of cooking water. Mix the pasta with the buttery pumpkin

and onion, adding a splash of the cooking water if it seems dry.

Serve sprinkled with the crisp sage leaves and pine nuts or pumpkin seeds, with parmesan to grate over the top.