Photo: dr.coop / Flickr

This butternut bake recipe does not require any pastry skills as the crust is made with breadcrumbs making it great for cooks who want to get a simple – if indirect – introduction into what goes into making pastries The breadcrumbs are blended with chopped tomato, sesame seeds, grated cheddar cheese and olive oil. The crust doesn’t require any rolling as it is simply sprinkled over the filling and baked until golden brown. Ingredients for the filling include butternut, onion, garlic, feta cheese, hyme, olive oil, mixed spice and seasoning. Replace the butternut with spinach for a spinach and feta cheese dish. Serve with couscous.

Prepare the breadcrumb topping

Measure out the following ingredients to make the breadcrumb topping: 2 cups of day old wholemeal breadcrumbs, 1 chopped tomato, 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese and 1/2 a cup of sesame seeds. You will also need some olive oil to bind the ingredients.

To make the breadcrumb topping, simply blend your bread in a food processor. Mix all the ingredients with some olive oil. Press the blended mixture into a ball. It should crumble easily and shouldn’t be too oily.

Prepare the butternut bake

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and prepare the following ingredients for the butternut bake: 1 1/2 kilograms of butternut (peeled and cut into cubes), 1 red onion (chopped), 2 cloves of garlic (chopped), 400 grams of feta cheese (cut into cubes), 4 sprigs of fresh thyme (chopped), 1/4 cup of olive oil, mixed spice and seasoning to taste.

Place the chopped butternut squash, onion, garlic, feta cheese and thyme into an ovenproof dish. Now season with mixed spice, salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle some olive oil over the ingredients and gently mix everything together until the butternut is well coated. Place the crust mixture over the top of the mixture and sprinkle with some more sesame seeds if you wish.

Bake the dish for three quarters of an hour or until the breadcrumb topping or crust is golden.

Follow this up with the best part of the whole process – eat!

Tags: baking, cooking, food, recipes