Roasted pumpkin with fennel seeds and chèvre

Nina Parker's 'Roasted butternut squash with wild fennel seeds' is supposed to be served with buffalo mozzarella or burrata, which would be delicious, but as I had none, and still had some goat's cheese in the fridge from the other day, I wondered if it would be a suitable substitute.  To find out, I consulted the indispensable The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit, and found that there was in fact a three-way compatibility between butternut, anise and goat's cheese. So I proceeded.

This side dish for two is a simple matter of tossing the butternut pumpkin chunks in olive oil, salt and pepper (as you would normally do when roasting pumpkin), then sprinkling with fennel seeds.

Roast the pumpkin until tender, then allow to cool to room temperature. Serve with crumbled goat's cheese and (this was my masterstroke) drizzle liberally with some sweet caramelised balsamic.