Saturday 16 August 2014

Cooking: Hint of Chili, Mainly Pumpkin Creamy Pasta



Hint of chilli, Mainly Pumpkin creamy Pasta
Date: 12/08/2014

Do you have those nights when all you want is carbs? That’s how I felt last night.

All I had though was a quarter of a pumpkin an auntie had kindly donated. I spent all day at work googling different recipes and there was no matching recipe that: a) suited what I wanted in terms of heartiness, b) was simple enough for a quick after work dinner, c) didn’t require fancy ingredients like fresh herbs. It’s the dead of winter so forgive me my lack of fresh-herbs-on-a-window-sill.

This is what I managed to concoct after a raid of the pantry. Not too shabby if I say so myself.

I love the little kicks of chilli throughout, just to give that little lift to the pumpkin. The creamy, thick sauce, with smooshy chunks of pumpkin. This is the sort of dish that makes me so happy to have leftovers to eat for lunch the next day.






Chilli Pumpkin Creamy Pasta
Serving size: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
- a quarter of a medium sized pumpkin (~1kg)
- ¾ of a head of garlic
- dried herbs (whatever you have out of: basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, mixed italian herbs)
- chili sauce (eg. Sriracha)
- dried chili flakes
- 375ml can of evaporated milk
- parmesan cheese
- olive oil
- salt
- brown sugar
- any type of cured meat (any type: bacon, pancetta, salami, pepperoni, ham)
- linguini pasta (any kind of pasta works and as much of it as you like)

Process:
1. Boil water in a saucepan and add two pinches of salt, a few drops of oil [1], drop in your pasta and cook until you’re happy with the consistency. Test by fishing out a piece and squeeze. If it feels too hard keep boiling. You’re looking for al dente pasta, that is cooked but still firm and not mushy.

2. Chop up pumpkin into 2cm by 3cm blocks [2]. Peel and crush cloves of garlic with either the end of your knife or the flat side of your knife and roughly chop, 5mm chunks is fine.

3. Remove pasta from boiling water and drain. Then add pumpkin straight into the already boiling pasta water. When pumpkin cooked, remove and drain.

4. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add chopped garlic, dried herbs, and cured meat. Saute until garlic slightly golden. Adding pine nuts into this step would be amazing if you had some, it’s still good if you don’t.

5. Add cooked pumpkin, two teaspoons of brown sugar, and saute some more until you see the pumpkin start to break down around the edges. Add your evaporated milk and bring to the boil.

6. Add parmesan cheese, chilli sauce, chilli flakes and stir in. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

7. Ladle out some pumpkin sauce onto a portion of pasta. Mix and eat!



Explanatory Footnotes:
1. I recently found out a trick of adding a few drops of oil when boiling pasta. It helps prevent the pasta from sticking together! I tested it out and it actually works!

2. If you think pumpkin is too hard to cook with, I’m here to tell you you’re wrong (sorry!). The hardest part I always found was getting rid of the skin. Use a sharp knife to slice away the skin instead of a peeler. Start from the middle of your chunk aim your knife downwards. Make sure to push the sharp edge away from you and keep your fingers away from where the knife will be going. If need be, flip the pumpkin onto the other side and to continue slicing. At the start you may slice away too much edible pumpkin flesh, but with time you’ll get better at removing just the right amount of skin.






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