Sausage and Squash pasta

I must admit that while making this dish I had a packet of pasta sauce on hand incase what was originally a good idea, turned out to be bland and boring. But alas, the sauce remained in its packet, and I gobbled this down, just as I'd made it.



Making a pasta dish without any tomatoes in sight is a completely new thing for me, so im glad that this Sausage and Squash pasta worked out so well.
As it turns out, the squash, onions, mushrooms and garlic are a prefect complement to the rich sausages. It feels like tasty winter food. I know, from the experience of my Mum's pumpkin/butternut squash soup, that squash, onions and garlic are the perfect partners, but i wasn't sure if that was enough to flavour pasta sufficiently. The addition of punchy sausage meat certainly rounds the flavours, making the pasta complete.

 Ingredients (serves one):

• 100g tinned chickpeas
• 2 white mushrooms, chopped in to chunks
• half a small butternut squash, skin removed and chopped in to small chunks.
• 4  pork sausages
• half a large onion
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
• dried thyme
• freshly ground black pepper
• pinch of salt
• teaspoon of sugar
• spinach to serve (optional)
• 75g pasta

Method:

• In a large pan place the squash, onion and garlic and sweat over a medium heat with the lid on, stirring occasionally.
• At the same time, place the sausages in a non-stick pan and cook on a medium heat for 15-20 minutes until browned on all sides. Remove 3/4 of the excess oil that comes from the cooking sausages from the pan, but save the last 1/4.
• Put the pasta in some boiling water to cook for 12 minutes
• When the sausages are done, put them in the pan with the onions  and squash, which should be cooked by now.
• Add a large pinch of thyme and the mushrooms.
• When the mushrooms have cooked down, add the chickpeas and the rest of the seasoning.
• Cut the sausages in to quarters, and let it all cook for a while, until the pasta is ready.
• Drain the pasta, and toss it in with the sausage and veg, making sure it's well coated in the oils and juices.
• Tip it out on to a plate, and serve with uncooked spinach if desired.