Creamy squash pasta with chickpeas
Roast butternut is blended with creamy ricotta for a thick, silky pasta sauce.
This dish has mac and cheese vibes, but with a lovely sweet flavour from the roasted squash. When blended with ricotta it makes such a gorgeous sauce - it’s smooth, velvety and really simple.
Stir through pasta and chickpeas, wilt in some greens and you’ve got a comforting, healthy weeknight dinner.
I used a mix of pasta and chickpeas. They add flavour, fibre and goodness, but you can use all pasta if you prefer (double the quantity).
For the greens, I used black kale, but you can use any greens here - try spinach, curly kale, chard, summer greens or even thinly sliced cabbage.
Enjoy!
You’ll need (serves 2):
1 small squash, or 1/2 a medium one, halved and seeds removed (about 450g)
100g pasta of choice, I used orrechiette
250g ricotta cheese
1 tsp bouillon (vegetarian stock powder)
1 tin chickpeas, drained
Large handful leafy greens, chopped, I used black kale/cavolo nero
Parmesan, to serve (optional)
Rub the cut side of the squash with a little olive oil and roast in the oven or air fry at 200C for 25 minutes or so, until soft. You can do this in advance if you want to get ahead.
When the squash is almost ready, cook your pasta according to package instructions.
When the squash is tender and easily pierced with a knife, scoop out the flesh with a spoon and transfer to a food processor. Add the ricotta and the bouillon. Blitz until smooth.
Drain the pasta and keep some of the pasta water. Add it back to the pan (or use a larger one if it’s quite small) with the squash sauce, chickpeas and greens. Add some pasta water to loosen a little, and cook on a medium heat until hot through and the greens are wilted. Add a little more pasta water at any point if it needs it. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve, with a grating of Parmesan if you like. Dig in.