Ingredients

• 400 g rigatonideep-ridged, so the sauce has something to hold
• 600 g squashdense and sweet, such as Crown Prince or butternut
• 60 g butter
• 12 sage leaves
• 2 garlic cloves
• 120 ml double cream
• 70 g Parmesan plus 30 g for crisps
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp fine salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. 01

   Roast the squash

   Heat the oven to 210 C / 190 C fan. Toss the cubed squash with a little oil, salt and pepper and roast for 25-30 minutes until deeply caramelised at the edges and completely soft. Pale squash makes a sweet but flat sauce; you want browned edges.

   600 g squash

2. 02

   Make the Parmesan crisps

   Spoon the 30 g of Parmesan set aside for crisps into 8 small heaps on a lined tray, well spaced, and bake at 200 C for 5-6 minutes until lacy and golden. Lift off with a palette knife once cool and firm.

   70 g Parmesan plus 30 g for crisps

3. 03

   Brown the butter and crisp the sage

   Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat and swirl for 4-6 minutes until the milk solids turn hazelnut brown and it smells nutty. Add the sage leaves for 30-45 seconds until crisp, lift them out, then add the crushed garlic cloves for 20 seconds off the direct heat.

   60 g butter · 12 sage leaves · 2 garlic cloves

   Watch the solids, not the clockBrown butter is thirty seconds from nutty to burnt. Pour it out at hazelnut.

4. 04

   Blend the sauce

   Blend the roasted squash with the cream, 70 g Parmesan, the pinch of nutmeg and about half the brown butter until completely silky. Keep the rest of the butter back. It is the finishing flourish, not a sauce ingredient.

   120 ml double cream

5. 05

   Cook the pasta

   Cook the rigatoni in well-salted water until just short of al dente, about a minute less than the packet says. Reserve a mugful of the starchy water before draining.

   400 g rigatoni

   Keep the pasta waterThat starchy water is what turns squash puree into a sauce that coats. A splash at a time.

   Undercook the rigatoniIt finishes in the sauce. Drained at exactly al dente it is soft by the table.

6. 06

   Bring it together

   Return the pasta to the pan with the sauce over low heat and toss for a minute, loosening with splashes of pasta water until the sauce clings to the ridges and slides rather than clumps.

7. 07

   Finish

   Off the heat, add the lemon juice and plenty of black pepper. Serve with the reserved brown butter spooned over, the crisp sage and the Parmesan crisps broken on top.

   1 tsp lemon juice