Once Halloween has come and gone, the question becomes what do you do with all those pumpkins that didn’t quite make it to the carver’s knife, but sat inside on the windowsill to show anyone passing by there was Halloween spirit in the house.
Pumpkins are versatile with a lot of uses including as an alternative to tomato sauce. Yes, I’m talking pasta.
Pumpkins are used often in restaurants in pastas but it is most often as a filling for ravioli. Pumpkin ravioli is great, but can be a time consuming.
“A sauce will not be quite as thick as a filling,
but slightly thicker than a soup so it will coat the pasta.”
So you might be wondering if it isn’t ravioli filling, how can I use pumpkin for pasta. To answer that, first let’s think of some of the dishes you can make using pumpkin. There are pie, ravioli and soups, empanadas and tamales, custards, cheesecakes and, as one of my co-workers found out, truffles. There are a ton of different things you can come up with, so now we want to see what they have in common.
Pumpkin is cooked, normally baked, to get the most flavor, and then it is pureed. This step is virtually the same no matter what you are making. After the pureeing, add spices and seasonings and follow the recipe from there. Keeping those directions in mind, it is easy to see how altering one step here or there, you have a whole new recipe to follow or another use for the pumpkin.
There are basically two ways to use the pumpkin with pasta. The first is to use it as a filling with ravioli or tortellini. The second is to use it as a sauce. A sauce will not be quite as thick as a filling, but slightly thicker than a soup so it will coat the pasta. Some sauces are actually as thick as a soup. My zucchini basil soup and the zucchini basil coulis can be used as either a soup, a sauce or a coulis.
Give this sauce a try on your pasta and enjoy.
Remember. It doesn’t matter what you make with your pumpkin, but don’t let it end up in the bucket because you have no recipes for it.
Pumpkin Sage Sauce
¼ cup white wine
1 shallot, finely diced
1 T butter
1 C heavy cream
½ C pumpkin puree
¼ C Parmesan cheese, grated
16 sage leaves, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all the seeds and stringy stuff. Place the halves cut-side down on a foil-lined pan and cover with another piece of foil. Bake at 350 degrees until tender. This will take about an hour and a half. Once done, scoop the meat out and puree it in a food processor or blender.
Sauté the shallot in the butter until it starts to soften and add the wine. Let the wine reduce until it is like a jelly or paste in the bottom of the pan. Add the cream and when it starts to slightly thicken, add the pumpkin puree. Let this reduce a little before adding the cheese and half the sage. Season with salt and pepper. Be sure to season after adding the cheese because Parmesan can be salty. Add the rest of the sage to taste.
