purees aren't just for babies

This is a strange time for allotment produce – our stores are dwindling but the spring crops such as purple sprouting have not really come good yet.  This is partly due to our extended winter and partly because the pigeons have treated our crop as an ‘all-you-can eat’ buffet. Ah well all is not lost and we are still eking out our pumpkin and parsnip crop – and have a few leeks still to come. But I’ve had enough of winter – come on sun – come out to play.

Now my daughter and her baby, Alice, came to stay recently. Alice is just being weaned so purees are just the thing for those toothless gums. I rummaged in our vegetable store – otherwise known as the spare bedroom - and cooked up some cubes of butternut squash. I whizzed them with a bit of homemade chicken stock and Alice lapped it up with amazing speed and gusto – that is between blowing raspberries, squidging it all between her hands and splatting it on the wall. I licked one of the many splats that came flying my way and it tasted darn good. Maybe purees are not just for babies. This was later reinforced when we went out to a restaurant a few days ago and my plate arrived with an artistic smear of – would you believe – pureed swede. It was velvety, probably laced with cream and butter and beautifully seasoned.

So this gave me a few ideas and as we have  some pumpkins past their best I cut off the nasty bits and cooked up the rest to make:

Pumpkin Pasta Parcels

If you have ever eaten pumpkin ravioli you’ll know how delicious it is – but also guessed that they are very time consuming to make. This is my cheat’s version.  I’ve left the quantities vague as you can make as much or as little as you like.

You’ll need:

A quantity of cubed pumpkin of squash

Cream – single or double

A few knobs of butter

Sheets of lasagne

Parmesan cheese

Olive oil

Seasoning

In a saucepan, cover the pumpkin or squash cubes with water and cook until tender.

At the same time, put on a large saucepan of lightly salted water to boil. Then add lasagne sheets – 2 per person. Add a glug of olive oil to stop the sheets sticking

 When the pumpkin is tender, drain some of the water, but leave enough liquid to make a puree with a handheld blender or food processor. Now stir in cream and seasoning to taste – it should taste smooth, rich and velvety. Add a few small knobs of butter.

Drain the lasagne sheets.

To assemble put a lasagne sheet on a serving plate and add  a tablespoon or so of pumpkin puree and wrap and tuck the lasagne sheet around it. Grate some parmesan over and drizzle on some olive oil. Do  2 parcels per person. All you need to accompany this is a green salad.