Butternut Pumpkin Macaroni & Cheese

Pretty much every recipe I've seen in the past two weeks which has originated from America has called for pumpkin.  Obviously, it's Thanksgiving and they're very keen on their pumpkins, but I'm a little bit over it. 

However, when a recipe for Roasted Butternut Baked Penne flashed before my eyes, I thought it looked worthy of conversion.

The resulting dish is excellent comfort food material.  It's warm, cheesy and sweet - all essential comfort food ingredients. 

We served it with a green salad and fresh crusty bread (as if there weren't already enough carbs happening on the plate!). 

Enjoy!!!

Butternut Pumpkin Macaroni & Cheese

(adapted from How Sweet It Is)

Ingredients:-

120g mozzarella cheese

120g parmesan cheese

650g butternut pumpkin - peeled and roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic - peeled

1 onion - peeled and halved

120g shortcut bacon - roughly chopped

30g butter

1 tbs vege stock concentrate
1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tbs plain flour

70g marscarpone cheese

190g milk

Few sage leaves

250g macaroni

Method:-

1.  Place mozzarella & parmesan into TMX bowl.  Grate for 5 seconds on Speed 8.  Set aside.

2.  Place onion, garlic, pumpkin and bacon into TMX bowl.  Lock the lid and chop by pressing the Turbo button 3-4 times. 

3.  Add butter and cook for 5 minutes at 100°, on reverse on Speed 2.

4.  Add stock, nutmeg, flour, marscarpone and milk.  Cook for a further 5 minutes at 100°, on reverse on Speed 2.

(While steps 3 and 4 are going, I cook the macaroni in a pot of boiling water on the stove.  You don't want to completely cook it - 5 minutes in the boiling water is plenty of time because it will continue to cook in the oven.)

5.  Drain the pasta and pour it into a heatproof casserole dish.  Pour the sauce over the top and stir through.  Top with the mozzarella and parmesan mix and garnish with sage leaves.

6.  Cook in the oven at 180° for approximately 20 minutes, until the cheese is golden and bubbly.