When I made the squash soup I tasted a bit of the flesh as I scooped it out to make the soup, and thought it was lovely. I thought about this at the time but have only just managed to get round to making it.

Cut the squash lengthwise. Try to get the surface completely flat, so that the squash will be in contact with the roasting tin. Scoop out the seeds using a spoon then remove them from the stringy orange flesh and rinse them.

In an oven, roast the two halves of the squash face-down in a roasting dish with olive oil and a few cloves of garlic. Roast the seeds – either with the squash or in a separate dish – with some salt and pepper and garlic. The squash will need between 30 and 45 minutes for the flesh to soften.

Meanwhile, prepare a filling. There was some left-over rice and a few mushrooms which were fried with onions, but other fillings are available.

When the squash is tender, serve with the filling and pour the oil, garlic and seeds from the roasting dish over the rice. Eat from the skin.

Serves two, one of whom staunchly resisted all attempts at fashioning a Stuart.