The pasta with pumpkin ragù is a tasty and rich main course, perfect for Sunday lunch with friends or family. In this recipe, the cooked pumpkin pulp is blended and added to the ragù instead of tomato. The pumpkin creates a delicious creamy sauce that envelops the pasta, and if you want to make your pasta with pumpkin ragù even more special, add some smoked cheese, béchamel, a bit of parmesan, and gratin it in the oven!
Not to be missed
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 8 People
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove, Electric Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
Oil is not included in the ingredients because I never use it in my ragù, but feel free to add it if you like. My pumpkin weighed 2.65 lbs. I baked it whole and used half for the ragù.
- 1 Delica pumpkin
- 1.1 lbs mixed ground meat
- 1 oz soffritto mix (celery, carrot, and onion)
- 1 red onion
- 1 tsp homemade vegetable stock cube (optional)
- to taste nutmeg
- to taste salt
- 0.25 cup white wine
- 1.4 lbs rigatoni
Tools
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Kitchen knife
- 1 High-sided casserole
- 1 Pot for boiling pasta
Steps
Prepare the pumpkin ragù: cook the pumpkin (find the directions in the article “bake a whole pumpkin“). While the pumpkin is cooking, prepare the meat ragù: in a high-sided casserole, collect the soffritto mix, the thinly sliced red onion and the homemade vegetable stock cube. Then add the meat and let it brown, stirring to dissolve all the lumps of meat. When the meat is well browned, deglaze with white wine, let it evaporate, season with salt (but be careful if you added the vegetable stock cube) and bring to cooking by adding hot water a little at a time. When the pumpkin is cooked, remove it from the oven, let it cool for a few minutes, then cut it into slices, remove the seeds, filaments, and skin, and take half of the obtained pulp. Transfer it to a glass of an immersion blender. Add a little water and blend the pumpkin until you get a smooth and soft cream. Pour the pumpkin cream into the casserole with the ragù and mix to blend it with the meat. Scent with a pinch of nutmeg and cook a few more minutes. Overall, my ragù took a little over an hour to cook.
Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water, drain it al dente, dress it with the ragù, and serve immediately.
