Roasted squash with yoghurt dressing

A very easy dish and one that works well eaten warm or even cold, so you can make it in advance. Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds (if you’re very thorough you can toast these and then split them to get the tasty part out) and peel off the tough outer layer - some squashes you don’t need to do this, the best way to find out is trial and error - if you leave them on you can cut them off while you’re eating.

Now cut the prepared squash into slices, around 1cm thick. Toss with a small amount of oil and some salt and pepper and roast in the oven at 180 until they are soft and slightly caramelised (maybe around 15 minutes, but it depends on the squash). Arrange on a plate to cool.

Now make the dressing. Take around 2 cups of thick yoghurt (e.g. greek yoghurt). Pound one clove of garlic into a paste, along with half a teaspoon off salt. Dissolve the garlic/salt mixture in the juice of half a lemon then stir into the yoghurt. Add a spoonful of tahini and stir thoroughly. It should taste like tangy hummus. Adjust the balance of flavours to your liking then spoon over the top of the roasted squash. You can sprinkle with toasted ground cumin or paprika if you want.

Squash, bacon and sage pasta

A simple, fast one-pot meal. This recipe is for 2 servings.

300g squash, peeled and diced. 4 rashers bacon. 200g pasta (penne or fusilli is good). A handful of sage leaves. Cooking oil.

Put on a big pot of water to boil and add salt. When boiling, add pasta and squash. Separately chop the bacon and fry in 4tbsp of olive oil. When the bacon starts to brown scoop it out with a slotted spoon then throw the sage leaves into the hot oil and cook until they crisp up. Once the pasta and squash has cooked, drain it, keeping a little of the water, and stir it together with the bacon - the squash should start to break up and coat the pasta. You can squash some of it with the spoon to help this process along. Scatter over the crispy sage leaves and drizzle with the oil. Add a generous amount of black pepper, and you can also add parmesan. For a slightly more elevated version you can roast the squash in the oven first then add the roasted squash to the cooked pasta.