Tomato Pasta #17 | A roasting tin win
Oven-roast, nicely spiced winter squash and cherry tomatoes, with buttery rice
As you may already have gathered, I’m on a mission to find the ultimate alternative to Tomato Pasta.
i.e. a speedy, uncomplicated, thrifty, nourishing and crowd pleasing meal that can balance the cost of my weekly shop, and (sometimes more importantly) my cooking burden.
There’s more context in the original post in this series:
In all honesty, this month’s offering is not quite The One.
While ‘handsfree’ in the sense that most of the cooking is done out of sight in one roasting tin, because I like things to taste good (ideally at their optimum) the recipe involves a few steps and staggered cooking times. There’s time to do a few other things while the elements cook (set the table, chuck something in the washing machine, doom scroll), but you’re never out of the kitchen for long. It’s not a bung it all in one pot and walk away meal.
It is absolutely delicious, though. And I’ll be cooking it plenty more times this Winter Squash season. This video provides a neat preview:
Or, for those who prefer a bulleted summary:
First, there’s a winter squash and its seeds (onion, crown prince, delica best, but butternut would be fine too).
Then, there’s some grinding and blending of spices (cumin, coriander, fennel seeds, ginger, turmeric, a little chilli, plenty of salt), most of which goes over the squash and seeds, which are then roasted (separately) until golden and fragrant.
Only then do cherry tomatoes get added (more of the spice blend, more oil, a bit of sugar) along with a bulb of garlic. And then more roasting happens, so that those things new elements intensify, caramelise, almost confit and self sauce while mingling with the squash-flavoured oils in the tin.
The end result goes really wall with a buttery pilaf (you could probably add some peas or other greens here, if your audience will be receptive).
Plates are finished with big dollops of yoghurt – which typically gets my family on board with a veggie-focused and/or spiced dish. If you have any in your cupboards, a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil at this point would be absolutely mega.
Didn’t read any of that but have scrolled to this point? TLDR: not a straight swap for a couple of cans of pulped tomatoes and a bag of rigatoni. But definitely still well worth cooking. Try it?
The recipe is below a paywall this week. Along with a few things I’ve recently enjoyed reading, listening to, eating and drinking. Next week will be a free for all round up of September’s recipes. See you then.
All the best, Ed.
The Recipe
Roasting tin spiced squash and cherry tomatoes with buttery pilaf
