Comfort food for the ill 1

Ken has a stinking cold... after watching Life of Pi at the cinema (finally - and isn't it amazing? Can't find a fault with it), he insisted on trawling the shops to buy a new laptop for me. I feel a bit odd having a laptop brought for me, feel its a bit of a waste of money and have many other things I need (a sewing machine that works?)... I shouldn't worry though as its not really for me, its for techno-obsessed-Ken but I will use it! 

And to make him feel worse, we came home empty-handed.

So dinner needed to be something to warm him and make him feel snug inside....

You probably think I should have made a healing chicken noddle broth, but I didn't have any chicken. I did have a lovely little autumn cup squash though.... and some delicious Helen Browning organic back bacon (I do think this bacon is really scrummy - great flavour and not all watery)... and some feta..... Mmmmmm - what a great combination - now, what to cook?

I had it in my mind I wanted to do a pasta bake. For me, bakes, with their crispy tops, are the ultimate simple/rustic warming comfort food. But I couldn't be sure how to make a sauce so that it wasn't dry and tasteless - do I do a white sauce, for example, but that would be bland surely? 

A brief search on the web in the usual places (BBCGoodFood  & BBC Food, predominantly -not very adventurous I agree!) I found a recipe for a macaroni cheese that used squash - BBCGoodFood - Butternut-Macaroni-Cheese. Whilst some people had found it to be a bit bland, others had sung the recipe's praises. So I decided to add some bacon and sprinkle feta on the top to boost the flavour.

Served with a simple salad of lettuce, tomatoes, avocado & red onion with a balsamic vinegar dressing to make sure Ken got some vitamins!

Whilst I don't like buying tomatoes at this time of year as they are not 'in season', the lettuce has come in my veg box, so whilst a greenhouse item, I can be sure that it has been grown under ethical conditions that are not compromising the environment in any way, and providing year-round employment to those who grown them.

02.03.13