Baked Pasta Shells with Pumpkin

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Baked Pasta Shells with Pumpkin

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By MC – Serves: 2

It's incredibly tasty, makes for a lovely presentation and is ideal for those Christmas dinners.

Ingredients

500g pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks;

golden drop Olive oil

2 whole cloves of garlic

Handful of baby spinach, chopped;

200g pasta shells (conchiglioni);

250g unsalted butter;

400ml Cucina d'oro cooking cream

65g milk cream cheese

40g dried cheeselet, grated;

2 sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked;

Juice of ½ lemon

Salt and pepper

Instructions

1

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Lay the diced pumpkin and whole garlic cloves on a roasting tray, season with salt and pepper and drizzle generously with olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes until the pumpkin is soft and slightly browned. Remove from the oven and mash the pumpkin, then stir the chopped spinach and leave it to wilt in the heat.

2

Whilst the pumpkin is roasting, partially boil the pasta shells in boiling salted water for 5 minutes. Drain and put under cold running water to stop them from cooking further. Drain again and set aside.

3

In a bowl add the cooking sauce. Stir in the cream cheese and half of the cheese and season to taste.

4

Spread the sauce into a large ovenproof baking dish and drizzle with olive oil.

5

Fill each pasta shell with the pumpkin mixture. Press the filled shells into the sauce in rows.

6

Add the diced sausage on top.

7

Drizzle with more oil and bake for 30 minutes.

8

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Return to the oven and bake until the top is golden brown.

9

While the bake is in the oven, melt the remaining butter in the saucepan and cook until it browns into a nutty colour.

10

Add the rosemary leaves, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Remove the pasta from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes.

11

Drizzle over the rosemary butter and serve.