Donal Skehan's autumn pasta recipe — plus an easy midweek dinner 

The Irish chef inherited a love of food from his grandmother and mother, and is now passing it onto his sons

Donal Skehan was influenced by generations of adventurous eaters.

Donal Skehan learned a lot about his grandmother from the handwritten recipes she left behind.

The TV presenter and cook playfully calls the 1970s in Ireland — when his grandma, Elizabeth Ryan, was cooking — the “worst time for food”.

“But my grandmother, in her great wisdom back in the day, was very forward and confident with her cooking,” he says.

She was a sculptor with a gallery and would “often be entertaining — they would have guests and my grandmother would cook meals for 12, 15 people at a time.

“They would be entertaining the archbishop who might be looking for a sculpture or something — I remember the shots of my mum with a Greek Orthodox priest who wanted a sculpture for his tabernacle or something like that.”

With an unusual home life, his grandmother provided the food to match — whipping up what Skehan calls “these fabulous meals”.

Skehan, 37, calls her recipe books an “insight into another world”, which he treasures since her passing in 2015.

He continues: “My mum has memories of her making croissants in the 1970s in Ireland — unheard of! I’m not sure you could have got them at the local bakery, that’s for sure.” 

The food world can be “quite snobby”, he suggests: “But what I love about my grandmother’s approach is that anyone can do it, anyone can try it and anyone can succeed in it.

“More than anything, it comes from a place of passion.” 

Donal Skehan’s latest cookbook is called Home Kitchen (Dave Brown 2023/PA)

This love of food and experimental approach was inherited by Skehan’s mother.

“We went to New York when I was about 12, and my mum and aunt insisted we had dinner in an Orthodox Jewish restaurant, where we were the only people who weren’t Orthodox Jews,” he recounts.

“We came and [there was] that moment where everyone turns around, and we had the most phenomenal meal — really beautiful, like matzo ball soup.

“I think that bravery and that confidence and that excitement about food definitely trickles down through my family.” 

With this kind of background, it was no surprise Skehan pursued food adventures outside of Ireland — living in LA for nearly five years.

“It’s an incredibly diverse city — it’s a city of nearly 12 million people, so as someone who comes from a country of nearly six or seven million, a town of a couple of thousand [Howth, near Dublin], it was absolute a shock,” Skehan admits.

“But when you dive deeper into the food offering, that’s when it gets exciting — and that’s probably what kept me in LA more than anything else. More than the weather, it was the fact that you had access to beautiful restaurants that are really diverse.

“Oftentimes it wasn’t high-end restaurants I had interest in, it was the mom-and-pop strip mall-style of joints that were cheap, cheerful — and they were being operated by first-generation immigrants who had a really great sense of the Vietnamese food they grew up with.” Skehan says his time in America encouraged him to be even more adventurous.

“I tried a lot more food than I possibly would have. It certainly influenced me in terms of the cuisines we were trying — like Ethiopian food and Korean food and Sichuan cuisine.

“So from that perspective, it definitely changed my tastebuds and definitely changed my lust for wanting to try new things, more so than I ever thought before.”

Home Kitchen: Everyday Cooking Made Simple And Delicious by Donal Skehan

Skehan and his family are now back in Howth, and he brings elements of LA food into his cooking. This is particularly seen in his latest cookbook, Home Kitchen, where a recipe for Vietnamese turmeric fish cake bánh mì sits alongside mushroom al pastor tacos and poke bowls.

One thing he’s certainly happy about being back in Ireland?

“The fish — my God!” he says with a laugh.

“I grew up in a fishing village. I loved LA, but I never really trusted the seafood there, because if you grow up in Howth, you know you’re getting it off the boats to the fishmonger.” Plus, he suggests Irish food has come a long way since the 1970s.

“Traditional Irish cuisine unfortunately gets bastardised by the Americans — if you have a quick Google search, the version of what Irish food looks like is grey and miserable,” he laments.

“Google is not our friend when it comes to representing Irish food! Traditional food is simplistic in its nature.” This is combined with a growing trend in Irish cuisine for more international influences.

“There’s this other side now where you have Irish people and chefs who have travelled and bring back techniques and ideas that meld together quite nicely with seasonal Irish produce,” Skehan notes.

Back in Howth with his wife Sofie and children Noah, five, and Oliver, three, Skehan can already see the same love of food getting passed down the generations.

“I try not to make my boys obnoxious with food, but they went and ordered separately – one had a bowl of cockles and one had a bowl of mussels – literally the day before yesterday,” he laughs in disbelief.

“I was like, they [people] really must think we’re a******** now…”

Donal Skehan’s autumn pasta

Studded with blue cheese and crisp walnuts, this is a warming seasonal dish.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 45 mins

Total Time

 60 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1 pumpkin or autumn squash (about 1kg), peeled, deseeded and sliced

• 3-4 sprigs of thyme

• 1tbsp olive oil

• 1tbsp salted butter

• 2 onions, thinly sliced

• 350g pasta shapes, such as conchiglie or rigatoni

• 100g blue cheese

• 75g walnuts, toasted and roughly crushed

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Best-quality extra virgin olive oil, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6.

2. Place the pumpkin on a large baking sheet with the thyme sprigs and toss in the olive oil until all the pieces are coated. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes, or until tender and caramelised at the edges. Once cooked, keep warm.

3. While the pumpkin cooks, place a large heavy-based frying pan (skillet) over a medium-high heat and add the butter. Add the onions and season generously, tossing to coat completely in the melted butter. Reduce the heat and cook gently until the onions are sweet and caramelised, about 10-15 minutes.

4. Towards the end of the pumpkin cooking time, bring a large pan of water to the boil and generously season with salt. Once boiling, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and reserve a cup of the starchy cooking water for use in the sauce.

5. Increase the heat back up under the pan with the onions, then add the reserved pasta water and bring to a steady simmer. Meanwhile, mash half the cooked pumpkin and add this to the onions. Crumble in almost all of the blue cheese (keep a little back to serve) and stir until you have a smooth, creamy sauce. Working quickly, add the pasta to the pan and stir through until completely coated.

6. Serve the pasta hot in warmed plates topped with the remaining pumpkin slices and blue cheese. Sprinkle with toasted crushed walnuts and top with a generous drizzle of the best-quality extra virgin olive oil you have to hand and a last seasoning of sea salt and black pepper.

Donal Skehan’s one-pot Moroccan-style meatball

Make this dish ahead for an easy weeknight dinner.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 4 hours 30 mins

Total Time

 4 hours 40 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Moroccan

Ingredients

• 450g minced lamb

• ½ red onion, finely chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

• 1 medium free-range egg

• 2tsp ras el hanout

• 30g fresh white breadcrumbs

• 1tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

• 2tbsp olive oil

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• For the sauce:

• 1tbsp olive oil

• ½ red onion, finely chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 1 heaped tbsp harissa paste

• Grated zest of 1 lemon

• 400g tin chopped tomatoes

• 100ml chicken stock

• 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

• To serve:

• Handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

• Couscous, steamed

• Greek yoghurt

• Flatbreads, charred and torn

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix the lamb with the red onion, garlic, egg, ras el hanout, breadcrumbs and parsley. Season well and with wet hands, shape into 20 walnut-sized balls.

2. Heat the two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan or using the sauté function on the slow cooker and brown the meatballs all over. Transfer to a plate.

3. Now for the sauce. Add the one tablespoon of oil to the pan or slow cooker and gently fry the onion for five minutes, then add the garlic, harissa and lemon zest, and cook for one minute more.

4. Transfer to the slow cooker (if you’re not already using it), then add the meatballs. Pour over the chopped tomatoes and stock.

5. Season well and cook on high for four hours, then add the chickpeas and cook for a further 30 minutes. If the sauce is too juicy at the end, remove the meatballs and reduce to your liking in a pan or using the sauté function on your slow cooker.

6. Serve the meatballs and sauce scattered with parsley, with steamed couscous, a dollop of yoghurt and flatbreads.

Donal Skehan’s Irish coffee, hazelnut and chocolate tiramisu

A crowd-pleasing variation on a classic.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 20 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 400ml double cream

• 250g mascarpone

• 4tbsp caster sugar

• 75ml Baileys

• 300ml strong coffee

• 75ml whiskey

• 200g Savoiardi sponge fingers

• 100g hazelnuts, toasted and roughly crushed in a pestle and mortar

• 75g dark chocolate, grated

Method

1. Put the cream, mascarpone and sugar into a bowl and whisk by hand with a balloon whisk until it is thick and luscious. Whisk in the Baileys and set aside.

2. Mix the coffee and whiskey together in a shallow dish. Dip the sponge fingers into this mixture and put a layer of them into a glass serving dish. Spread over a third of the mascarpone mixture and scatter with a third of the nuts and chocolate.

3. Repeat to make two more layers, finishing with a layer of cream scattered with nuts and chocolate. Chill for at least two hours before serving. This will keep well covered in the fridge for two to three days.

• Home Kitchen: Everyday Cooking Made Simple And Delicious by Donal Skehan is published by Yellow Kite. Photography by Dave Brown 2023. Available now.