I have been fascinated by people’s refrigerators while writing this book. I take a peek at what they’ve got and so often there’s half a butternut squash going dry. This recipe is for that sad, forgotten squash. It’s low effort but with an addictive flavour. If you have a whole squash, roast it all as there are numerous things you can do with leftover roasted squash, such as adding it to the Green Soup on page 64, serving it with the Meatballs on page 125 or mashing it and stirring some through the Béchamel from page 134 for a creamy pasta sauce. It also makes the most of having the oven on.

Serves 2, or 4 as a side

Ingredients:

• ½ butternut squash or pumpkin, or 2 sweet potatoes, cut into 5 cm (2 inch) chunks
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 100 g (3½ oz) kale or cavolo nero (lacinato kale), stalks removed
• 40 g (1½ oz) pine nuts (or flaked/slivered almonds or whole almonds, pecans or walnuts, roughly chopped)
• 30 g (1 oz) butter or 2 tablespoons
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 10 sage leaves
• juice of ½ lemon
• 100 g (3½ oz) feta, broken into shards
• pinch of chilli (hot pepper) flakes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan (425°F).
2. Put the squash into a low-sided baking tray (pan) with 2 tablespoons of the oil and a generous pinch of salt. Rub the salt and oil all over the squash so it’s evenly coated, then roast in the oven for 45 minutes until soft and deeply golden at the edges.
3. Put the kale into a bowl with the remaining oil and a small pinch of salt and scrunch the leaves until they have softened a little and are glossy.
4. Add the kale to the tray with the squash and roast for a further 5 minutes until the edges are a little crispy and the rest is just wilted and still bright green. I like the kale to still have some texture, so you don’t need it to be fully wilted.
5. Put the pine nuts into a small frying pan (skillet) over a medium heat and toast them for 2 minutes until very lightly golden, shaking the pan to toss every so often. Add the butter and olive oil and cook for a minute until foaming, then add the sage leaves, letting the sage crisp and bubble in the butter for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and squeeze in the lemon juice.
6. Serve wedges of the squash with a little pile of kale, a shard of feta, a drizzle of the pine nut butter, the crispy sage leaves, chilli flakes and a few cracks of black pepper.