Description
A creamy roast pumpkin pasta sauce flavoured with garlic, sage and lots of parmesan. A decadent and moreish pasta sauce you will love.
Ingredients
200g dried pasta or 300g fresh pasta
500g pumpkin cut into bite size pieces, please note this is the finished weight of the cut pieces you need. I started with a piece about 800g (with the skin, seeds etc)
1 tbsp olive oil
30g butter
2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped or minced
1 tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped
1 tsp tomato paste
3/4 cup cream (not double cream)
50g parmesan, very finely grated with a microplane or star side of box grater
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper
3 - 4 slices prosciutto
Knob of butter
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 celsius (350f) fan bake.
- Fry the prosciutto slices in a knob of butter until crisp and set aside.
- Toss the pumpkin pieces in a bowl with the olive oil, a good pinch of salt and a few cracks of black pepper.
- Arrange the pumpkin pieces on a baking tray lined with baking paper and roast in the oven for 40 - 50 mins until lightly charred (see the pictures above).
- Cook your pasta in a pot of well salted boiling water. When you start the sauce depends on what pasta you are using. The sauce takes about 5 mins to make so if using fresh pasta you'll add it after you start the sauce.
- Melt the butter over medium heat and add the garlic and sage.
- Gently sizzle for a few mins, moving the garlic around so it doesn't brown. Turn the heat down if you need.
- Add the tomato paste and let it gently sizzle for a minute, whisking it into the garlic mixture.
- Lower your heat slightly and add the cream, whisking to incorporate.
- Add the parmesan in a few lots, whisking and letting it melt between each addition.
- Add the pumpkin pieces and use a wooden spoon to gently smoosh (that's a very technical term!) the pieces into the cream. You don't want to fully mash them in, I like having chunks of the pumpkin in the finished sauce.
- Add the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and a good few cracks of black pepper.
- When the pasta is almost done add 1/2 cup pasta water into the sauce and mix.
- Add your pasta straight into the sauce and let it gently bubble away for a minute or so.
- Add more pasta water to loosen the sauce if needed.
- Serve with extra parmesan, a good crack of black pepper and the crisp prosciutto crumbled over the top.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- The more you make pasta the more you will get used to cooking it and the sauce simultaneously. I work out how long the pasta will take and how long the sauce will take then work out what needs to be started first. In this case I know my orecchiette will only take a couple of minutes to cook so I have a pot of boiling water going and add the pasta to it when I am adding the cream to the sauce. If you get the sauce done too quick and the pasta isn't ready then just lower the heat right down until it's ready. If it thickens up too much then all you need is a splash of pasta water to loosen it.
- With most of my sauces I like to let the pasta bubble away in it to help thicken the sauce and coat the pasta. If you are using dried pasta then undercook it slightly so it doesn't overcook in the sauce.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour