Anyone for tennis? Ok, Squash?

I'll eat anything with squash attached to it. I love it in a semi-warm salad with thinly sliced pears, pine nuts, parma ham and rocket drizzed with sticky balsamic and I get feverish waiting to eat it with thyme, garlic and lemon-laced roast chicken. I've eaten some pretty rubbish squash soups over the years, usually made with boiled squash (yack) and a pitiful stock. Squash soup shouldn't be a waterlogged excuse but a rich, velvety and deeply flavoured meal in a bowl. Depending on which point in winter I'll roast the squash with cumin and dried chilli to stoke the internal furnace but my No1 squash recipe is the one I'm sharing here. I know it seems a bit of a fag but if you can be bothered to make fresh pesto, go for it, you'll never look back. At worst, buy the freshly made stuff from an authentic Italian deli. I'll come running for you if you even reach for anything that comes out of a jar! You might notice that the base of this soup is made, yet again, with my one-pot arsenal of pancetta, onion, carrot and celery but you'll understand why once you adopt the same idea.

Soup Ingredients:

4 or 5 average sized butternut squash

1 onion finely chopped

1/4 stick of celery finely chopped

2 carrots finely chopped

1 pack of smoked pancetta (optional)

2 pints (approx) of good chicken or vegetable stock

Bunch of thyme

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

A couple of tbsp ricotta cheese or a small pot of single cream (optional)

Pesto Ingredients:

Two packs/plants of fresh basil

Small pack of pine nuts

Lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Lots of the best olive oil you can afford

Coarse sea salt

A squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Soup Method

Whack the oven on to its highest setting. Place your peeled and chopped squash onto a generously sized baking tray, drizzle with oil, spike generously with thyme, salt and pepper and give everything a good mix up. The total roasting time depends on the squash because it varies in water content.

This recipe requires at least an hour long roasting so that the squash sort of shrinks and becomes concentrated, sticky and dark brown at the edges. Turn down the heat to 190/200 c after about 15 mins. While the squash is roasting fry off the pancetta in a heavy bottomed pan. Once crisp add onion, celery and carrot and sweat down for 5 to 10 mins. Turn off the heat and make up your stock. Once the squash is ready, turn it into the pancetta and vegetables and pour over the stock. Bring everything to the boil, stirring occasionally and simmer for 5 minutes. Spoon the contents of the pan into a blender (you will need to do this in batches to avoid over crowding) and whizz-up until the mixture turns totally smooth and velvety. Don't rush this stage. If you think it's blended enough, blend it again for another minute just to be sure. The consistency at this stage will resemble a dense but loose puree and that's where all the flavour is. If you really must thin it down, do so with more stock - never water - but remember each drop of water reduces intensity. Transfer the entire blended mixture to a clean pan and spoon in your ricotta or single cream. Put the pan on the heat (on a low setting) with the lid on until it becomes volcanic.

Pesto Method

While you're waiting for the soup to re-heat, add pine nuts, basil and a pinch of sea salt into a blender and whizz until coarse/amalgamated. I'm not mad on paste-like pesto, I prefer mine more rustic but it's totally your preference. Transfer to a bowl and grate in your parmesan like a mad person, you will need lots so don't be shy. Squeeze in some lemon juice and douse everything with olive oil. You'll be horrified by how much oil you need so try not to think about it. The mixture needs to be very loose, gorgeous and glossy.

Serve the soup in a warmed bowl with the pesto dotted generously on the top. It's gorgeous too with a slice of grilled parma ham or pancetta on top.