Butternut and Cottage Cheese Stuffed Pasta

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A delicious vegetarian family meal that kids will love to help prepare.  A great low cost meal with simple everyday ingredients.

Ingredients

• ½ Butternut squash
• 250g Cottage Cheese (I use cottage cheese with chives for extra flavour with no extra hassle)
• 250g Pasta (Dry: Extra large shells Cannelloni tubes or  Fresh: Lasagne sheets). Note if you are using fresh pasta the weight will be higher
• 1 tablespoon Oil
• 1 Onion chopped
• 2 Cloves garlic
• 600g Jar Passata
• Your preferred herbs (mixed herbs, basil, oregano, thyme all work well)
• ½ -1 Cup grated cheese
• ¼ Cup pumpkin seeds

Method

Filling

1. Halve a butternut squash by slicing length ways, scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Bake for 30-45 mins until very tender. (I usually do this step the day before, say if I am cooking a roast chicken for dinner).
2. Scoop out the soft squash from the skin, place in a bowl and allow to cool
3. Add the cottage cheese to the squash and mash. This is your filling
4. If you are using dried pasta cook as per the packet directions
5. Fill your pasta shells or cannelloni tubes (a great kids job). If you are using lasagne sheets, I turn them into home made cannelloni tubes. i.e. Lie a sheet down, spread the filling in a line at one end of the sheet, roll it and cut it off from the main sheet. I then repeat until I have a number of home made rolls
6. Fill a large baking dish with your filled pasta. (to prevent sticking it can be a good idea to first spread a very thin layer of the sauce mixture at the bottom of the dish before adding your pasta.

Sauce

1. Heat oil in a pan, sauté onion until translucent and fragrant
2. Add garlic, sauté for a further 1-2 mins
3. Add Passata
4. Add any herbs that you like
5. Gently simmer for around 10mins
6. Pour the sauce over top of your pasta
7. Sprinkle on the cheese and pumpkin seeds
8. Bake for 30 mins at 180 degrees celsius until nice and golden
9. Serve

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