Anna Jones’s autumnal recipes for roast squash

Squashes – autumn’s favourite gourd – are abundant now, and, when roasted, are a generous and versatile ingredient to have to hand for countless meals, as shown by these recipes

Anna Jones
Monday 9 October 2017 12.00 BST

As the start of each season rolls in, I am persuaded that it is my favourite. This week, with the arrival of autumn’s first squashes, was no exception. I got the jumpers down from the loft in celebration.

For the past few weeks, squashes have been arriving in our veg box every Wednesday. Their shapes and colours are never the same: last week it was a squat, lacy-edged off-white pattypan and a cricket ball-sized acorn squash, dark and shiny on the outside and a deep pumpkin pie orange within. The previous week, there was a turban squash – green– and orange-striped and shaped like a cottage loaf – and a small, striped and pale-fleshed delicata. These squashes floor a lot of cooks who, unsure how to approach their gnarly curves, or don’t know if their skin is edible, second guess how long to cook them for.