Butternut and Spinach Pasta Bake with Kandy Shepherd

 BUTTERNUT AND SPINACH PASTA BAKE

 

Unlike my character, Marissa, in my latest release from Harlequin Mills & Boon, THE TYCOON’S CHRISTMAS DATING DEAL, I like cooking. Event planner Marissa has no interest in cooking and exists on ready-meals and easy to throw together salads. One of the perks of planning the Christmas celebrations at hero Oliver’s ancestral home Longfield Manor–now a luxury hotel—is that all her meals come from a top French chef. Even though I like cooking, I think I might enjoy that too!

 

In my search for new recipes, I’m often hunting for delicious vegetarian meals. One of my favourite recipe sites is Smitten Kitchen. Recently, I was enticed to try her recipe for a pumpkin and spinach pasta bake. Because I didn’t have all the ingredients the recipe called for, I had to improvise with those in my pantry. The result? Something delicious–my family absolutely loved it! It was great to eat cold the next day, too. The link for the Smitten Kitchen recipe is below (I absolutely love her recipes!) I’m sharing my version, where I took a few shortcuts.

 

This recipe looks dauntingly long but, be assured, it’s very simple. It took me a while to cut up the pumpkin! However, once all the ingredients are assembled, you just mix it all up and stick it in the oven. Easy!

Slice the butternut pumpkin small and thin

 

Note: I use Australian standard measuring cups and spoons for this recipe, but US or UK measures would work as well.

 

Butternut and Spinach Pasta Bake

Serves 6

 

YOU WILL NEED

• 2 eggs

• ½ cup of marinated feta, broken into small chunks

• 2 cups of ready grated pizza cheese (mix of cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesan) plus ½ cup extra of pizza cheese to spread on top of bake

• 350ml water (or vegetable stock)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil plus 1 tablespoon to drizzle on top

• 1 teaspoon salt

• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 1/4 teaspoon dried chili flakes

• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 120 g baby spinach, roughly chopped

• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

• 550g grams butternut pumpkin (squash) peeled, seeds removed and sliced thin

•  225 grams dried wholemeal vermicelli, broken into short pieces

 

 

METHOD

 

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C/350

2. Grease and line a 23cm/9 inch deep sided springform cake tin with baking paper, allow a generous overhang.

3. In a large bowl, mix the eggs and feta.

4. Add the water.

5. Add the 2 cups of pizza cheese.

6. Add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

7. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, chili flakes, garlic and thyme.

8. Stir in the pumpkin, then the spinach. (I started off with a spoon and ended up using my hands!)

9. Add the broken vermicelli and mix through.

10.  Pour into the springform pan, push into place and smooth the top.

11.  Sprinkle with the extra pizza cheese.

12.  Place the baking paper that overhangs the tin inside and over the filling, then cover with foil to give a tight lid.

13.  Bake for one hour.

14.  After an hour take out from oven and remove foil. Pull the baking paper back away from the surface to leave it clear. Drizzle over the extra oil and return pan to the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes. The top should end up golden and crisp.

15.  Put pan on a rack and cool for 30 minutes.

16.  Remove the springform ring. Use the baking paper to lift the bake onto a platter. Cut into wedges to serve. (I served with a leafy green salad.)

 

https://smittenkitchen.com/2021/10/winter-squash-and-spinach-pasta-bake/

Kandy Shepherd is a best-selling, award-winning author of contemporary romance. Her heartfelt, passionate stories are set in exciting locations around the world and are published in multiple languages. Kandy believes in love-at-first-sight and real-life romance—she and her husband of many years decided to spend their lives together after three days! She loves it when readers tell her that her books make them laugh and make them cry. Kandy lives near Sydney, Australia with her husband and numerous four-legged friends.

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Kandy Shepherd has a new book out this month:

The Tycoon's Christmas Dating Deal

HIS CANDY CANE CONTRACT
The loss of her parents makes working the holidays difficult for event planner Marissa. But planning a party for tycoon Oliver is an offer she can’t refuse. The problem? Oliver—her childhood crush!—needs her to be his fake date… Following his beloved grandfather’s passing, Oliver’s dedicated to giving their family manor the farewell it deserves. But his grieving grandmother is convinced that Marissa is his girlfriend, and why shatter her dreams? Yet as the festivities ramp up, the terms of their deal blur. Is their chemistry real or just a trick of the twinkle lights?

Buy on:

Amazon Kindle

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Amazon Aust

Amazon UK