North African Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew

Another Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe that I have tweaked to suit my store cupboard contents; despite having a large library of cookbooks, I keep coming back to his 'Veg Everyday!' cookbook because it's so fabulous. This is essentially a Moroccan stew, but the addition of pasta means this is a one-pot dish and you don't need to serve with any carb e.g. cous cous. The low pasta content (in fact I added more to Hugh's original recipe) in the stew also means those who would rather have it without can, in my view, remove it without fear of compromising the recipe too much. I bought saffron especially for this, because I've always seen it in recipes and omitted it, but felt like trying it out. I have to admit that I balked at the price - four GB pounds for a small jar! However, I pressed on and bought it anyway. I have to admit, I'm not sure how much it adds to the dish - perhaps a subtle flavour - so if you too do not feel like shelling out for such an expensive spice then feel free to omit that too.