YES, I said pumpkin mac & cheese and trust me your gonna love this recipe.
We all know this time of year, October especially is pumpkin spice season and we all go mad for Starbucks or anywhere selling pumpkin spice lattes. but how many of us actually eat the real thing on its own.

The first time I ever tried it was on a flight it came with beef and rice. To be honest, I ate around it at first then I said why not just try pumpkin. From then I have always enjoyed it but now I prefer to have it with honey salmon than beef.

So let’s get to the point of this post, now again I have to say I don’t measure anything and just go by taste and it’s really annoying.
Sorry…

You want a nice chuck, this one was about a quarter from a medium side pumpkin. Of course you need to de-seed, remove the skin and cut in to pieces.  give them a quick wash and get a pot ready.

I cook the pieces in a mix of milk and water with some garlic, salt and pepper. Once they are soft drain and mash, leave it to one side.

      When it comes to the pasta I recommend the spirali kind. Its a fun shape and can  hold a thick sauce well. Under cook the pasta as we are going to bake it later, it will still absorb the sauce while baking and wont end up being too soft.

 Now its time to work on the sauce. First melt some butter then add some sifted plain flour, cook it out for about 5 minutes. Then slowly add milk until it thickens into a white sauce.

Once the white sauce is done it time to turn it into a cheese sauce and you do that by adding cheese…Duh. I added the whole 200g bag and I wanted this to be decadent af. Note if its gets took thick you can just add a tad more milk.

       The cheese sauce is ready so I now add the pumpkin, add it a bit at a time as you don’t want it to be too runny.  The pumpkin is already seasoned all I add is some nutmeg ,pepper and garlic salt to taste.

   Mix in the pasta and turn off the heat, for that added gooey cheesiness add a hand full of mozzarella. You could just eat it like this but if you want to take it to another level you need to bake it and get that crust on top.

Move the pasta to a dish add some (more) cheese and bread crumbs on top, bake until the top is golden and hard. Secret tip I drizzle some milk over it stops the bread crumbs burning too quickly and it also stops the sauce getting to dry when baking.

 Voilà

Doesn’t that look amazing! It taste it too!! As this is a super rich dish I like to serve it with a simple side salad. The pepperiness of rocket and sharp red onion goes so well with this dish with a light vinaigrette.

Please if you try any of my recipes try this one you wont be disappointed.

Roxie xx