Name: Pumpkin soup
Total time: 50 min
Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil; 2 onions, roughly chopped; 2 carrots, diced; 2 sticks celery, diced; 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped; 1kg after peeling pumpkin or butternut squash, cut into chunks; 1.2 litres chicken stock; 150ml double cream; for grating (optional) nutmeg; 150g dolcelatte, rind removed; 1 ball mozzarella, drained and grated; leaves chopped to make 1 tbsp sage; 8 slices bloomer; butter

Two mugs full of pumpkin soup, next to two slices of a blue cheese toastie

2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions
roughly chopped
2 carrots
diced
2 sticks celery
diced
2 cloves garlic
roughly chopped
1kg after peeling pumpkin or butternut squash
cut into chunks
1.2 litres chicken stock
150ml double cream
for grating (optional) nutmeg

TOASTIES

150g dolcelatte
rind removed
1 ball mozzarella
drained and grated
leaves chopped to make 1 tbsp sage
8 slices bloomer
butter

Method

step 1
Heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the onions, carrots, celery and garlic until soft. Add the pumpkin and cook for 5 minutes, then tip in the stock and simmer until the pumpkin is soft and you can mash it with the back of a spoon. Add the cream and cook gently for 2-3 minutes. Put everything in a blender and whizz until smooth (or use a stick blender). Gently reheat to serve, grating over a little nutmeg, if you like.
step 2
Meanwhile, to make the toasties, mash together the blue cheese and mozzarella with the sage. Divide the mixture between the bloomer slices to make 4 sandwiches. Butter the outside of the sandwiches then fry on both sides in a non-stick frying pan until golden and the cheeses have melted (if you need to do this in 2 batches, you can keep the sandwiches warm in a low oven). Cut into fat fingers then serve with the soup.