This creamy pasta bake is sweet and savoury all rolled into one. The bite in the goat’s cheese becomes smooth and creamy when mixed with that sweet butternut pumpkin.

Ingredients

• 500g mini penne, cooked al dente
• 3 cups butternut pumpkin, cooked
• 120g goat’s cheese

Topping

• 1 pkt (125g) crumbed walnuts
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp allspice

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C fan-forced. Grease an oven proof dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Place the pasta in a large bowl and set aside.

Using a food processor, combine the pumpkin and goats cheese until smooth and creamy.

Mix the pumpkin mixture through the pasta and pour into the dish.

In a small bowl, combine the walnuts, brown sugar and allspice and sprinkle over the top of the pasta.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until heated through and golden on top.

Notes:

• Pasta in pasta bakes soak up a lot of liquid so you can thin this sauce out with a little with milk or sour cream if you want a really saucy pasta.
• I am not a huge fan of peeling pumpkin so I cut them in half, scrape out the seeds and then bake them at 200°C for 50 minutes. While they are still warm I scoop out the pumpkin flesh.
• One small pumpkin should yield three cups.
• This recipe was created by Jennifer Cheung for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.

Serving Suggestions

Note