Gino D'Acampo's airfryer pumpkin lasagne recipe

Ingredients

"I hate waste and so I created this recipe after making pumpkin lanterns with my daughter Mia during Halloween one year," says cheeky chappy Gino D’Acampo, whose latest recipe collection is called Gino’s Air Fryer Cookbook. "Sweet pumpkin works really well with the salty speck, the Parmesan and the kick of the chilli.

"This is a really fantastic, tasty lasagne which can easily become vegetarian by removing the speck. You can substitute Parmesan with Pecorino cheese, speck with Parma ham, pine nuts with chopped blanched hazelnuts and the pumpkin with butternut squash, if you prefer; it will still be delicious."

Serves 4

• 1kg pumpkin, cut into 3cm slices
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 2tsp chilli oil, or to taste
• 6 fresh lasagne sheets, each about 16 × 11cm
• 100g sliced speck ham
• 30g pine nuts
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the béchamel:

• 70g salted butter, plus 20g cut into cubes
• 60g plain flour
• 700ml whole milk
• 70g finely grated Parmesan cheese
• ¼ small nutmeg, freshly grated

Method

1. Preheat the air fryer to 180°C for three minutes.
2. Place the pumpkin, olive oil, a quarter teaspoon salt and quarter teaspoon pepper in the air fryer fitted with the basket insert and toss well. Cook for 20 minutes until just tender.
3. Meanwhile, make the béchamel by melting the 70 grams of butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Using a whisk, stir in the flour and cook for one minute until it is a light brown colour. Gradually stir in the milk, reduce the heat to low and cook for eight minutes, stirring continuously. Once thickened, remove from the heat and stir in 40 grams of the Parmesan and the nutmeg.
4. Season with half a teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon pepper, stir again and set aside to slightly cool, then adjust the seasoning and nutmeg to your taste.
5. Reduce the air fryer temperature to 150°C.
6. Spread one-third of the béchamel in a 21-centimetre square baking dish, or directly into the air fryer drawer, if yours is the same size, then drizzle in one teaspoon chilli oil. Lay two lasagne sheets on top; you'll need to trim one and add the trimmed piece to the gap above the sheets. Add half the pumpkin in an even layer, then half the speck and 10 grams pine nuts. Repeat these layers, then finish with a final layer of pasta and the remaining one-third of béchamel on top. Reserve the remaining pine nuts. Cook for 20 minutes.
7. Increase the air fryer temperature to 160°C. Sprinkle over the remaining Parmesan cheese, pine nuts and the 20 grams of cubed butter, grind pepper over the top and cook for a final 20 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Let it rest for five minutes before serving.

Gino’s Air Fryer Cookbook: Italian Classics Made Easy by Gino D’Acampo is published by Bloomsbury. Photography by Haarala Hamilton. Available now.