A couple of years ago, Dan and I found ourselves skulking around our old neighborhood, bemoaning the loss of our spectacularly located — yet, I always conveniently forget, heinously noisy — former apartment, calling old friends on our mobile phones, and growing increasingly desperate for a warm place to sit down, preferably a warm place with an excellent beer selection. We had scrawled down the name of a bar — Jimmy’s No. 43 — on the back of some scrap of paper and told our friends to meet us there.

As we approached the bar, I began to get nervous. The street address and the name seemed unpromising. Was this going to be another one of those frat-house NYU bars, replete with baseball-capped twenty-two-year-old business majors and their manicured female counterparts? We descended a flight of stairs and entered the bar. It was just past 5 PM — still early — but the wait staff greeted us warmly. Soft, golden lamp light spilled through the subterranean rooms. We may have both audibly sighed as we sat down, removed our bulky coats, and ordered our first pints of beer.

Finally, we were back home.

Jimmy’s No. 43 has been haunting me ever since, and not because it was so welcoming, or because the beer selection was so good, or even because we sat for hours in the candlelight there laughing with our friends — although all those things help me remember it fondly — but because of a small dish of pasta I ordered that night, and loved. It was an earthy, wintery, altogether grown-up sort of macaroni-and-cheese, really. I don’t know why it took me so long to finally reproduce it, but when I sat down at the table last week, and the perfect fall flavors of the Berkshires — delicata squash, maple syrup, cheddar cheese — met my big glass of Brooklyn Local 2, I felt somewhat at home again.

And that felt pretty good.

Roasted Delicata and Cheddar Gemelli

This recipe makes enough for two hungry people, or two dinners and some leftovers for lunch. Good luck keeping it that long, though. Doubles easily, and works really well with beer and a salad of bitter greens.

For the squash

1 delicata squash, washed, halved, and seeded
2 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. maple syrup
1 tbs. chopped rosemary
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Quarter the delicata and slice into thin slices of uniform size, about a quarter inch. (You can eat the delicata’s peel, so don’t bother peeling it.) Toss with the oil, syrup, rosemary and some salt and pepper, and spread in a thin layer on a baking sheet. Bake for about 45 minutes or until tender. Set aside.

For the pasta

1/2 lb gemelli (or whatever shape you like — capanelle, ziti, penne, or rotelli would work, too)

3 tbs unsalted butter
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1 tsp powdered mustard
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2.5 c. milk
1 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese (I like Cabot’s Hunstman)
1/2 c. grated parmesan
salt and pepper
chopped parsley

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta, and cook until tender. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan (or the pot you just used to cook the pasta), heat the butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add the flour, mustard, and cayenne, and whisk to combine, whisking continuously for about a minute, until the mixture deepens in color. Whisk in the milk in increments, and bring the whole concoction to a boil, whisking all the time, until it thickens somewhat. Take the pot off heat and add the cheese and big pinch of salt, stirring until the cheese is fully incorporated. Taste for salt and pepper. Ladle the cheese sauce over the pasta (you may have some extra — sauce it to taste) and stir to combine. Finally, mix the baked squash into the pasta, stirring again to combine. Dust with chopped parsley and serve.