Butternut pasta with pork and mushrooms

This recipe was an advertisement for (if memory serves) colchester cheese published in a women's magazine in South Africa, many years ago. It looked awesome though, so my mom and I made it and I've loved it ever since. I've only ever used it with cheddar cheese though, maybe I'm missing the real beauty of the dish all this time.

The picture above I pulled off the internet and isn't a true representation of the dish.

Ingredients:

500g pasta

2 T sunflower oil

1 onion, sliced

300 g pork fillet or stirfry, in strips

300 g butternut pumpkin, cut into fingers or smallish blocks

250 g mushrooms (halved buttons or slices if black/portobello)

250 g cherry tomatoes

Cheese sauce: 4 T butter, 4 T flour, 4 T brancy (optional), 2 c milk, 2 c colchester cheese

Cook pasta and drain

Fry onion in oil, add pork.

The original recipe says to add the butternut, but I find it's better to cook the butternut in the oven or even microwave as it takes forever in the pan - so I'm going to say put the butternut in the air fryer or oven until just soft.

Add mushrooms and tomatoes to fried pork, cook until just done.

Make cheese sauce, add cheese and brandy last once taken off the heat.

Mix everything - the original recipe said to mix the pasta with the cheese sauce and add the veggies/meat on top, but I don't find that necessary. At this point you can serve, or add more cheese and panko bread crumbs over the top and pop it in the oven to melt.