Tasty roasted butternut, bacon and sage pasta bake recipe
Creamy and comforting, this pasta bake is a hug in a bowl. Mashing butternut squash into the cheesy sauce balances the richness, and its sweetness goes wonderfully with earthy sage.
This pasta bake is a delicious way to celebrate the flavours of sage!
With its strong aroma and minty, slightly bitter flavour, sage is never used raw and a little goes a long way (especially as it can withstand long cooking times without losing flavour). Bought fresh as downy leaves or dried and chopped, it is packed with a good dose of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin K, the unsung hero of cardiovascular and bone health. It’s rich in antioxidants and can help support your brain and improve memory function. It’s antimicrobial properties are also marked, and often find their way into household cleaning products. As a member of the mint family, sage makes a surprisingly delicious herbal tea, sweetened with a dose of honey and a squeeze of lemon.
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Yields:
4 serving(s)
Prep Time:
30 mins
Cook Time:
1 hr
Total Time:
1 hr 30 mins
Cal/Serv:
727
Ingredients
1/2
butternut squash (about 600g), peeled, deseeded and cut into 2cm pieces
125g
smoked bacon lardons
2tsp.
olive oil
2tsp.
dried sage
40g
butter
40g
plain flour
400ml
semi-skimmed milk
50g
Parmesan, grated
300g rigatoni pasta
300g
rigatoni pasta
Small handful sage leaves, larger ones shredded (or use 1tsp dried sage)
125g
mozzarella, torn
Directions
Step 1Preheat oven to 190°C (170°C fan) mark 5. On a baking tray, mix the butternut squash, bacon, oil and dried sage. Loosely cover with foil and roast for 30min, stirring halfway, until tender.
Step 2Meanwhile, make the sauce. Melt butter in a medium pan over low heat. Stir in flour and cook, stirring, for 30sec. Remove pan from heat and gradually mix in milk to make a smooth sauce. Return pan to medium heat and cook, stirring, until thick (the mixture will need to boil). Stir in most of the Parmesan and check seasoning.
Step 3Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook pasta according to pack instructions, until just al dente. Reserve a ladle of the cooking water, then drain and return pasta to the pan (off heat). Remove half the squash (avoiding the bacon) to a bowl and mash. Stir mashed squash into the sauce then mix sauce into the pasta, adding a little of the reserved cooking water, if needed, to loosen.
Step 4Spoon pasta mixture into a rough 2-litre ovenproof dish and top with the remaining butternut squash and bacon, sage leaves, mozzarella and reserved Parmesan. Cook in oven for 25min, until golden. Serve.
If you're catering for vegetarians, use Italian hard cheese (rather than Parmesan) and just omit the bacon.
If you don't have time to bake this pasta in the oven, simply stir through the cheeses, bacon and all the butternut squash. Fry off the sage leaves in a little oil, until they are crispy.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
