Recipe: My Little Piccolo’s Squash Mac & Cheese with a Hint of Sage

Recipe: My Little Piccolo’s Squash Mac & Cheese with a Hint of Sage

My Little Piccolo makes delicious and organic baby food pouches inspired by the Mediterranean approach to health and well-being. The company is very passionate about good, nutritious and organic food for children to enjoy from around 6 months and they have a wide range of pouches to choose from to tickle your little one’s taste buds. They offer a bunch of yummy Stage 1 blends with vegetables, fruits and herbs and a Stage 2 range with lots of delicious meals suitable from 7 months+.

The company also donates 10% of its profits to food education, and is the first baby food brand to work in partnership with the prestigious National Childbirth Trust (NCT), the UK’s largest parenting charity.

Something I really like about My Little Piccolo is that the company happily shares their recipes with parents so that they can recreate their favourite My Little Piccolo meals at home for the whole family. There are lots of recipes on the website — many are the same as the meal or fruit/vegetable pouches and then there’s a bunch of other snacks and meals to enjoy making and eating with your little ones.

The first recipe that we tried is the Squash Mac & Cheese with a Hint of Sage one — there’s a matching pouch for it too! We have a bit of history — Mac & Cheese and I. I made it once for the very first time about 10 years ago and it was not a success. The only meal I’d made that my (now) husband didn’t like! I didn’t make it again until last year and then I used a completely different recipe and the result was much better. Now I’ve tried My Little Piccolo‘s recipe for this classic meal and I have to say that it’s the winning one and my husband even wants to have it again!

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My Little Piccolo’s Squash Mac & Cheese with a Hint of Sage

Ingredients:

• 250g of macaroni
• 1 glug of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 knob of butter
• half an onion, finely diced
• 200g butternut squashed, peeled and chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon of plain flour
• 100ml low salt vegetable stock
• 150ml of single cream (or full fat milk)
• 80g cheddar cheese, grated
• 20g Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 teaspoon of fresh or dried sage

Method:

• Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.
• While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce.
• Warm the butter and oil in a heavy bottomed pot on a medium heat and add the onion to cook for a few minutes, until softened.
• Add the butternut squash and carrot pieces and cook for 8-10 minutes until softened.
• Add the flour and mix through the vegetables and cook for a minute or two.
• Whisk in the stock and milk/cream in and bring the sauce to a gentle boil.
• Stir in the cheeses and the sage.
• Blend smooth with a hand blender.
• Drain the pasta and mix it with the sauce.
• Serve as it is or put in a ramekin with a bit of extra cheese on top and place under the grill until browned. We did this! YUM!

This was such a delicious meal that we will definitely have again! My toddler (nearly 14 months old) really loved it and devoured big pieces of macaroni in this yummy creamy sauce full of calcium and lots of hidden veg! We served the meal with broccoli, cauliflower and kale and just broccoli for the kids as that’s my toddler’s favourite. We made a big batch so we had leftovers for the next day which is always nice.

In collaboration with My Little Piccolo.