Roasted Butternut Squash Delight

I love butternut squash, pumpkin, and all this winter squashes that you can eat only with a spoon. The sweet and nutty flavours always go well with cheese and if roasted, I can't even tell!!!
Well, so get the ingredients ready and try some:

1 medium butternut squash
1 full ramekin of courgette
1 ramekin of yellow pepper cut in squares
1 ramekin of chopped shallots
1 ramekin of chopped leek
1 ramekin of cherry tomatoes cut in halves
1 ramekin (one ball) of sliced mozzarella
20g of flaked almonds
A sprinkle of chili flakes (or powder)
4 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of balsamic vinegar
1 tsp of turmeric
1/2 tsp of garlic paste
1 tbsp of Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp of bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Half the butternut squash and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut the flesh of the squash in criss-cross as in the picture.

Mix in a cup 2 spoons of the olive oil, all the balsamic vinegar, turmeric and garlic paste, and brush the mixture over the squash. Put them in a tray, covered with tin foil and place it in the oven. Meanwhile, prepare the filling in another baking tray adding the courgettes, shallots and yellow pepper, a sprinkle of chili, salt and pepper to taste and the other 2 spoons of olive oil mixing them together and also placing them in the oven for 15 minutes.

When the 15 minutes have passed, uncover the squash halves and set the timer for another 10 minutes. After these 10 minutes, add to the filling the tomatoes, leeks and almonds and set the timer again for another 12 minutes.

Take everything from the oven, place the filling on the top of the squash halves, the mozzarella and sprinkle with some Parmesan and bread crumbs. And bake for another 10 minutes or until the bread crumbs are golden.

It is delicious with a rocket salad seasoned only with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt. And also really good company for a pinot noir glass...
Hope you enjoy!!!

The unplanned sausages and beans salad

When my husband is working and I have to cook only for myself I normally chose to "clean up" the fridge and use ingredients that are there for some time.
Today I felt like a salad and following the tradition, cleaned the fridge!
I know that the planned recipe was the moqueca, but I think this salad is so nice that you should give it a go...
Ingredients:

1 ramekin of Polish sausage (kabanossi) - you can find it at Tesco in UK and in Brazil is the "paio"... Sorry if I can't give information on how to find it in any other country
1 ramekin of butter beans in water
1 ramekin of finely chopped courgette - about half courgette
1 ramekin of green peas
1 tomato finely chopped - if you prefer the cherry ones, you can use about 8 of them cut in disks
1/3 of a red pepper finely chopped
1/3 of a yellow pepper finely chopped
1/2 an onion finely chopped
1 tsp of garlic paste
Soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.
Fry the sausage in a frying pan with no oil at all - it will release its own oil. The add the courgette and fry it for about 5 minutes, then add the onion and fry it until golden brown. Add the garlic paste, cook it for about a minute and add the beans and peas. Cook it mixing all the time for 3 minutes. Take from the heat, put in a bowl and mix the other ingredients (tomato and peppers). To season I normally use:
1 tbsp of the soy sauce
2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp of olive oil - extra virgin is the best
Some salt and pepper.

You can serve it hot as it is or cold. I like it with leaves salad (watercress, rockets and spinash).
Hope you like it as much as I do!!!