Butternut Squash - Roasted and Stuffed

I love squash, all kinds, but particularly the butternut squash. The natural sweetness and flavour really is delicious. Whether it's in a soup, added to a casserole, risotto or, as in this recipe simply roasted and served as star of the show, I love it.

If you haven't roasted a squash like this before it's definitely worth trying. What I like about this is you can mix it up with the fillings. I've kept it simple here with bacon, cheese and garlic but if you wanted to use peppers, chilis, mushrooms or even rice to make it more filling, you can. Really anything you fancy that you like with squash will work.

Roasting a squash in this way will take a bit of time but it is worth the wait. All in its about an hour for cooking and around 1hr 20mins including prep. As this is being served as the main part of the dish I try to buy quite a large squash. Start by cutting it in two length ways, it is quite hard so make sure you have a sharp knife. I use my meat cleaver as it also has a bit of heft to it. No matter how hard I try, I never get it to cut into two equal halves. However, as you're going to scrape out the inside once its cooked don't worry about it too much, you can put equal halves of the filling into each bit for serving.

This squash is nice served with a tomato salad or breaded onion rings and a slice or two of garlic bread. Something with a little bit of crunch to compliment the soft texture of the roast squash.

Recipe

Serves 2

• 1 large butternut squash

• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 4 rashers of bacon

• 70g cheese grated

Directions

1. Heat your oven to 180°C fan (200°C, 400°F, Gas 5.5)

2. Cut your squash in two length ways.

3. Scoop out the seeds and cut a crisscross into the flesh (see picture above). This will help with the cooking and the scooping out once its cooked.

4. Brush the top with oil and put the finely chopped garlic into the hollow where the seeds were with a touch of the oil. Cook in the oven for 45mins or until its tender.

5. Place your bacon rashers on a baking sheet and cook in the oven for 10mins. Once done remove, cool and chop into small pieces, approx. 1cm squared. You can do this at any point while the squash is cooking, as long as its done with the 45mins.

6. Remove from the squash from the oven and scoop out the soft flesh and the garlic into a bowl with a spoon. You need to leave a layer of squash around the bottom and sides so that it holds its shape. I find it helps to cut a line around the side before scooping out the middle.

7. Give the squash a bit of a mash through with a fork then add the bacon and grated cheese to the bowl and mix well.

8. Return to the oven for 15mins

9. Remove from the oven and serve.