The produce on sale in our local bazaar in Kazakhstan depends very much on the season. You can of course find tomatoes, for example, at any time but in winter they cost seven or eight times as much as they do in summer and autumn. They are not as good either, usually being imported from as far away as Greece or Turkey. Most people don't buy them, or the red and green peppers and aubergines which are also tasteless by the time they reach us here, if they ever had any taste to start with. People prefer to wait for the local tomatoes which come in the early summer, the green peppers a few weeks later and the aubergines and red peppers in mid-summer. What do they eat the rest of the year? Well, there are all kinds of root vegetables and cabbages. There are also a lot of pickled and salted vegetables. There are lots of young fresh green herbs which are forced up under glass and there are pumpkins. The pumpkins ripen in autumn but they are stored until mid-winter and spring when their taste and colour seem to intensify.
I put this recipe together in April, when pumpkins are one of the best vegetables available in the bazaar. I made pumpkin ravioli with sage at the same time the previous year and it was a success but I couldn't be bothered fiddling about with the dough this time. This recipe is simple and fast and delivers a similar taste combination to that of the pumpkin ravioli. Like a lot of my pasta recipes, by the time the pasta is cooked, the accompaniment is also ready, which means this is a great recipe for when you come in from work and you're tired and hungry (assuming, of course, that you have a piece of pumpkin at home).
The quantities here are for two people.
Ingredients
300-350g of pumpkin
8 or 10 walnut halves
Olive oil
3 or 4 sage leaves (fresh or dried)
70-100g of cheese (optional, for garnish)
200g pasta
Salt
Put water on to boil for the pasta (if you want to know more about cooking pasta click here). Peel the segment of pumpkin and cut it into pieces about 2x2cm. Steam the pieces for about 10 minutes. The best way to do this is to put the pumpkin in a sieve (strainer) or something similar and sit that over a pot with about 5 cm of boiling water in it. Cover the pumpkin in the sieve with the lid of the pot. You can of course just put the pumpkin straight into a pot with some water but you loose more vitamins and taste that way.
While the pumpkin is steaming your water for the pasta will have come to the boil and you'll have thrown in the pasta. You'll have time to chop the nuts now. The pumpkin will be ready before the pasta so take it off the heat and leave it to the side for a few minutes. When the pasta is ready, heat some olive oil in a frying pan and then drain the pasta (watch the oil doesn't get to hot while your doing this).
Now leave the pasta aside for a minute. Crumble the sage leaves, or chop them if they are fresh, and throw them into the hot oil. Add the pumpkin immediately, followed by the chopped nuts and a little salt. Stir and add the pasta. Stir again gently to mix all the ingredients. If you like you can serve it with a little grated cheese on top.
more pasta dishes