Ultimate Vegetarian Pasta Bake

Prepare roasted squash. Preheat oven to 200 C. Peel and cut the squash into large cubes. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast on a large, flat baking tray for 25-30 minutes, until lovely and soft.

Cook the mushrooms. Slice the mushrooms. Saute in a large pan with a little olive oil and salt over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes, until golden brown.

Cook the pasta. While the above is happening, cook the pasta until just al dente. I like to reduce the cooking time by 1 minute as the pasta will continue to cook while baking and you don’t want pasta that’s too soft. Once pasta is cooked, reserve ½ cup of pasta water and strain the rest.

Make the tomato sauce. Add olive oil, onions and capsicum to another pan and saute over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes. You want the veggies to get soft and almost caramelised.

Add the garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, salt, pepper, chilli, paprika and stir through. Follow with tomato sauce and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Wilt the spinach. Finally, add the baby spinach and stir through; cook for 1-2 minutes until wilted into the sauce. Taste for seasoning.

Combine the pasta. Add the pre-cooked pasta to the sauce along with the mushrooms and most of the roasted butternut squash. Add the feta cheese and stir through. Place any remaining butternut squash pieces on top and finish the dish with grated Cheddar or Mozzarella.

Ready to bake. Preheat the oven to 200 C (this can be done while you’re assembling the pasta if making everything at once). Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese has melted and a golden brown crust has formed.