James Martin is one of my favourite chefs – his food is more about taste than anything else. I like this style of cooking. My baking is definitely ‘You don’t measure taste with a spirit level’ type of baking. But what I also like about James Martin is he makes some really simple, absolutely delicious food.
One of the perks of growing your own vegetables is that you often get surplus veg left over at the end of the season – I had more Winter Squash than I could roast last year and still have a few hanging around the fridge.
I saw James Martin do a ‘masterclass’ on Pumpkins on his Sunday morning TV show, and I was hooked. I have used his recipe with Pumpkin and Butternut Squash, and both are delicious.
I did a bit of a twist on James Martin’s recipes by just making the Soup in a simple format with just 3 ingredients and using this as the sauce for my Tagliatelle. It’s so simple, and gluten free if you make your own pasta (see my last post for a recipe), or simply use dried supermarket bought pasta – it’s the sauce that makes the dish!
I had a leftover Butternut squash in the fridge so decided to make the soup for my pasta sauce for a lovely winter evening meal – really quick, and simple, after a long day at work.
Pumpkin Soup Recipe/Pasta Sauce
1 small pumpkin or a Butternut Squash, diced
½ ltr milk
25g butter
Simply chop the flesh of the Pumpkin/Squash into small cubes, add this to the pan with the milk and butter and bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 mins. I let the mixture cool, then blitz it in a blender. Easy! Just reheat for a couple of minutes when you are cooking your pasta.
I spooned the soup over my freshly cooked tagliatelle, then grated fresh parmesan over the top. Homecooked, winter comfort food – made in minutes. I teamed mine with some yummy grilled vegetables just for some extra goodness.
If you want to try the other Pumpkin/Squash recipes from James Martin’s masterclass, click on the link here Pumpkin Masterclass – Pumpkin Ravioli, Pumpkin Soup and Tagliatelle with Pumpkin – James Martin Chef
If you are wanting to plant potatoes this year, then you need to be buying your seed potatoes now – trust me, your garden centre will sell out quickly! But, you don’t want to plant them yet.
I have bought my First and Second Early seed potatoes, but I have wrapped each individual potato in newspaper to stop the light from getting to them. I have then placed them in a closed box. This should stop the seed potatoes from sprouting/chitting before I want to plant them.
Planting is best done in March for the First earlies. Good luck!