Give Me Five: Butternut squash and sausage pasta

Now is the perfect time to buy and cook squash. Butternut is the most readily available and grows really well here too.

I pick one up almost every second week, as they store really well, so there’s rarely an occasion when one gets wasted. Chopped into wedges and roasted, blitzed into a mash with a hint of cinnamon, or puréed into soup with coconut milk, there’s very little you can’t do with this versatile fruit. It regularly comes to the rescue when there’s no plan for dinner. As the name suggests, the orange flesh is buttery and smooth. I love pairing sage with all pumpkin and squash dishes, but it can be a little difficult to source if you don’t grow your own, so for this recipe I’ve opted for the sweet-perfumed basil.

Roasting the squash cubes in this way is a great way to use the fruit. I often roast a few squash at a time this way and save some for a robust filling salad, scatter some on pizza or blitz with tahini, garlic and lemon juice to make a rich roast butternut hummus.

Sausages are fantastic for adding flavour and body to a dish and a great shortcut ingredient. Try to buy sausages with a high meat percentage and always read the list of ingredients. As with all things processed, the purer and fewer the ingredients, the better. Essentially I’m using the sausage meat as flavoured pork mince here, removing the casing and frying up the meat until it crisps up around the edges. Cooking it this way gives a much nicer texture than having slices of sausage in the finished dish.

Making your own pasta can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience. Dusting off the pasta roller is the last thing you need on a Friday evening, though, so I suggest buying fresh egg pasta. It’s readily available in most major supermarkets or from some great specialist shops, such as the cheesemonger Iago in Cork. After just three minutes in a bubbling pot of water, the pasta turns to silky smooth ribbons, ready to be dressed in a rich creamy sauce. It tastes much more luxurious than the regular dried variety, but, of course, most types of dried pasta can be used here, including spaghetti. Creme fraiche is the purest, easiest solution to pasta sauce, especially when loosened with some of the pasta cooking water. With all of the flavour from the squash, basil and sausage, this is a seasonal treat for the weekend that’s in it.

SQUASH WITH SAUSAGE AND TAGLIATELLE

Serves four

The five ingredients

• One butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 450g (or six) garlic sausages
• 200g creme fraiche
• 350g fresh tagliatelle pasta
• 8-10 basil leaves, roughly torn

From the cupboard

• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Peel and halve the squash. Scoop out the seeds and cut the squash into cubes. Place on a large baking tray and pour over one tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the cubes in the oil and spread out on the tray in a single layer. Roast until just tender and not too soft: 20-25 minutes should do. Set aside.

Slice down each sausage lengthways and remove the outer casing. Tip the meat on to a dry pan, and fry until cooked through and crisping up. You’ll need to stir it around as you cook it, like you would minced meat.

Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and simmer for three minutes. Drain over the sink, reserving about four tablespoons of the water.

Return the pasta, along with the cooking water, to the pan. Add the creme fraiche and stir until combined. Add the butternut squash cubes, sausage and torn basil leaves. Mix gently, then season to taste with black pepper and a little salt if necessary.

Serve immediately.

Every Thursday we'll tweet and post the five ingredients on irishtimes.com so you can have them ready on Friday. Email givemefive@irishtimes.com with your suggestions for recipes. Lilly is on Twitter @lillyhiggins