Day 11: autumnal bliss

While I would happily eat any of the ingredients put forward in this recipe at any time of the year, I do believe I have just found my autumnal sustenance; in the form of buttery-hued ribbons of pasta, sweet squash and salty-soft blue cheese. It is, quite simply, a utopic union. A marriage, made in heaven.

If you’ve been following since the beginning of 365 Days of Nigella, you’ll know from my previous prattles that my adventurous use of butternut squash was at amateur level, at best. I did perhaps forget to mention that it has of course found its way into a variety of soups in the past, but as for roasting or anything other than boiling and then blending - I'm afraid I hadn’t dabbled. It’s substitute feature in Nigella’s Thai Yellow Pumpkin and Seafood Curry from Day 1 of this 365-day Nigella cookalang did not go un-noticed, but I did not think I’d be welcoming it back - and gladly too might I add - into the kitchen so soon.

And then, as if it were a sign from the food gods themselves, every time I picked up Nigella’s Kitchen book to browse for inspiration, the book would open to this recipe. Likewise, if I placed the book down to revert to later, the recipe on show on the kitchen table would be this one - Nigella’s Pappardelle with Butternut and Blue Cheese. I need minimal convincing when it comes to blue cheese, and with pasta - why I hadn’t I thought of this?

Nigella’s Pappardelle with Butternut and Blue Cheese

Sweet, buttery, silky divinity - chaperoned, welcomingly, in each mouthful by the sharp tanginess of blue cheese and the crunch of toasted pine nuts. I always get a little nervous when cooking something I haven’t before, particularly if it’s an ingredient I am not familiar with. As we all know, the more you use a certain ingredient, the better you know it; what it works with, how it cooks, when it’s overdone and, similarly - when it’s underdone.

I took great delight in every step of this recipe, aside from the impatient nervous pacing as I was waiting for the butternut to cook - in fear there wasn’t enough liquid or that I’d overcook it into a mulch. Impatient excitement was the emotion du jour for the cooking of this one, followed by long-lived pleasure and satisfaction in the consumption.

Flavour musings

I believe this bowl of delight played a trick on my senses. A good trick. I really felt like I was eating a creamy pasta dish, but I think it’s the sweet, velvety texture of the butternut, the emulsification of the butter and starchy pasta water, and the edges of the blue cheese crumbles that began to melt into the sauce and stick to the pasta, that made it feel like so.

I welcome this anytime to my table.