Autumn 06

Sometimes you cook something so good that you can’t help marvel at it. You tell your friends, casually at first, and then insistently when they aren’t excited enough. You think about it, at your desk and smile a little. And then you just have to write it down to prevent the unthinkable - that you forget this delicious meal.

So here it is:

Halve a small butternut squash which your mother sent to you via your sister on a train: scoop out the seeds and chuck in an oily baking tin, cut side down. When soft as butter, turn onto two plates and add:

• 'Mashed' potato - roughly forked, with olive oil and a grind of black pepper (I’d run out of butter)
• Pork and apple sausages, so sticky the frying pan is left looking marmitey
• A pile of cabbage from the veg box and an over-generous amount of onion gravy, made in same marmitey pan. Cook the onions for a long, long time in a slow pan.

I always think the phrase ‘mellow fruitfulness’ is over-used and a bit over-the-top romantic, but this meal really woke my senses up and re-ignited my love of autumn: it is absolutely a season of mellow fruitfulness. How exciting we are just at the beginning!