Need a first course to serve for lunch? Then you might want to prepare this pasta with pumpkin ragù. It’s really very tasty thanks to its ingredient combination. The contrast with the fried sage is spot on, and the crunchiness provided by the pumpkin seeds is excellent. You’ll see, they’ll ask if there’s more. And naturally, like most of my recipes, it’s also very easy to prepare. What are you waiting for? Buy the ingredients and get cooking!
Other pumpkin first courses:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 25 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients for Pasta with Pumpkin Ragù
- 12 oz mezze maniche rigate
- 2 1/2 cups pumpkin (weight after peeling)
- 1/2 cup soffritto mix
- as needed vegetable broth
- A few leaves sage
- 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds (toasted)
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
- black pepper
Tools
- 1 Pot
- 1 Pan
- 1 Skillet
Preparation of Pasta with Pumpkin Ragù
Clean the pumpkin by removing the rind and all seeds and internal filaments. Do not throw away the peel; use it to make delicious chips. Find the recipe by clicking HERE.
Wash it, pat dry with paper towels, and cut it into rather small cubes.
In a skillet, heat a few tablespoons of oil and fry the well-washed and dried sage leaves. I didn’t really immerse them in oil; I more or less sautéed them. They will be ready when crisp. At that point, remove them from the skillet, transfer them to paper towels, and pat to remove excess grease. Set them aside.
Remove the excess oil from the sage skillet and add the pumpkin seeds and a pinch of salt. Then toast them for a few minutes to make them even crispier and tastier than they already are.
In a large pan, heat a few tablespoons of oil before adding the soffritto mix. Let it sizzle for a moment, then add the pumpkin cubes and brown them over high heat for a few minutes.
Then moisten them with a ladle of boiling broth, lower the heat, and continue cooking for 10/15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The pumpkin should be tender but not falling apart, so check the cooking time, which may vary depending on the size of your cubes, and add more broth if needed.
At the end of cooking, mash some of the pumpkin cubes with a fork to give the sauce a creamy consistency. If it has dried out too much, add more boiling broth or soften it with some of the pasta cooking water.
Cook the mezze maniche in plenty of salted boiling water, drain them al dente, saving some of their water, and transfer them to the pan with the sauce, stirring to mix well with the sauce.
Also add the crumbled sage leaves.
Serve the pasta with pumpkin ragù on individual plates, sprinkle with the toasted pumpkin seeds, dust with freshly ground black pepper, and serve immediately, nice and hot. Enjoy! Paola
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