Creamy pasta with pumpkin and sage, step by step

The sage is flowering, and the flowers are edible!

I love to make a creamy pasta sauce with pumpkin, and sage is the perfect herb for it!

Cut about 500 g of pumpkin, into cubes, big and small. Sauté with olive oil for a few minutes, then add about 400 ml of vegetable stock and simmer for 20.

When the pumpkin is soft add about 200ml of cream, sage leaves (save the flowers for later) and black pepper. Simmer for other 10 minutes.

You can use the sauce immediately, or let it sit for a while, covered, to absorb even more sage flavour. I also like to break some of the bigger cubes with the spoon, for a creamier sauce (but always leaves enough pumpkin cubes visible).

Toss the cooked pasta in! I used 500g of fusilli here. Stir well to incorporate the sauce, and then top with the sage flowers. Not only they are beautiful, but they also taste great!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Pumpkin Coconut Curry (and pumpkin soup for the day after)

 

Bake the whole pumpkin in the oven and then slice and remove the outer peel and centre, slice and set aside. Chop two shallots and one green pepper and sauté with a little vegetable oil,  then add red curry paste (as much as your taste buds suggest) and a can of coconut cream, plus the water from rinsing out the can. Bring to a simmer, then add the sliced pumpkin and some Vietnamese mint leaves and flowers, cover and cook for 20 minutes. Top with fresh Vietnamese mint flowers, and also chopped coriander and Thai or lemon basil. Serve with rice, it is delicious!

If you have made a lot you can also blend it into a soup, easy as!

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Plant based recipes for an Autumn evening

Brrrrr it is getting cold! Time to prepare some filling, comforting and easy dinners :-).

Greg gave us a long pumpkin from his garden, I love it as you just need to slice it and peel it and you have a nice pumpkin medallion!

Roasted pumpkin medallions with pumpkin and sunflower seeds

Slice, peel and place onto an oven tray, drizzle with olive oil, salt, smoked paprika, garlic and crushed cumin seeds. Roast until tender. Toast a few pumpkin and sunflower seeds the oven and sprinkle on the pumpkin medallions before serving.

In addition I had the last zucchini in the garden, not quite a marrow but quite big, so I sliced it and baked it too:

Baked zucchini

Wash and slice lengthwise, drizzle with olive oil and salt, bake. That all!

To serve I added some basmati and lentils

Lemon basmati and lentils

Wash and cook the basmati with a small pinch of salt, open a can of lentils, drain from the water and pour the lentils on top of the rice during the last five minutes of cooking. Turn off the heat, add two tbsp of lemon juice and stir.

And to top some instant hummus with almond dukka:

Instant hummus

Open a can of chickpeas, drain and keep half of its water. Blend the chickpeas, water, two peeled garlic cloves and the juice of half a lemon until smooth. Add salt to taste and a little olive oil.

Almond dukka

Toast half a cup of almond, a few sunflower and pumpkin seeds and 1 tsp of cumin seeds. Add a little rock salt, a pinch of paprika or the spice of your choice. Grind and use to top the Hummus.

Well, that was easy, the kids loved it and got eaten in no time!

And remember that May 15 is Food Revolution Day! Sign the petition here!

#FoodRevolutionDay

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Polenta e lenticchie (polenta with lentils)

Brrrr it is cold! I envy my friends in the Northern Hemisphere now that evenings are becoming chilly, but on the other hand I like to cook nice winter casseroles! This dish is vegan and gluten free, for the polenta recipe I just use polenta flour, water and salt and follow the packet instructions (real polenta takes about 45 minutes, the instant takes 5!). Usually I make soft polenta, thus adding a bit more water, but packet instructions tend to be for the 'harder' type, the one that you pour onto a wooden chopping board and then cut into slices. My nonna (Grandmother) used to make the hard one, and then she cut it with a string attached to the chopping board: no knife needed and even the youngest kids can do it!

For the lentils, wash the brown lentils with water and then soak for a little. Soaking is not really necessary but I like to do it so then I can give them another rinse and get rid off possible dirt that 'escaped' in the first wash. In the meantime sauté a finely chop carrot, celery stick with leaves and garlic (or onion) with two tbsp of olive oil, add the lentils and cover with vegetable stock. You can also add a tbsp of tomato paste, or some herbs, but this time I just added some chopped parsley at the end of cooking. Simmer the lentils as long as you can, stirring often and adding more water if necessary. Adjust with salt and pepper (and parsley) at the end, add another drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and save hot, with slices of hot polenta.

And now a little gardening update: I picked this orchid stem from my garden, so happy to have some cut flowers even in winter, and in the garden they seem to attract ants, so it is better to keep them inside. They last a long time too. I have also collected all my pumpkins (4), one is quite big, the others not so, but considering that they came form a plant that I didn't plant I am happy! They look good too, too pretty to cut, but eventually they will get eaten! The Irises instead are not from my garden, but  I am seriously considering planting them, they are so pretty. I am not sure if they will do well in the bush though, anyone has them in their gardens in Auckland?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Sexy pumpkin!

 I got given this pumpkin, it is quite big and really beautiful, I am not quite sure about the variety, a long neck? I don't want to cut it yet (too pretty) so it has been posing in my living room like a big bottomed model in an art studio.
Does anyone know this variety, and what it is best used for? I expect that I can get quite a bit of flesh from the 'neck' while all the seeds are in the round bottom part… and if this is the case I may just keep some seeds for next year, so I can too have some fancy long neck beauties like this one!

Well, if you have a name, and some recipes, for my model I look forward to hearing from you! :-)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Pumpkin with coconut cream and basil, first a side dish and then a main

I had half a pumpkin to use, but just a little bit of Thai herbs mix (ginger, lemon grass, chili, garlic and coriander), certainly not enough to give my pumpkin a spicy flavor! Still, I felt like coconut, so I cut the pumpkin and two celery stalks with leaves and put them in my pot, then I added one can of coconut cream plus one can of water (to rinse the cream out), the remaining Thai herbs mix (about half tsp) and one organic veggie stock cube. I cook the lot until the pumpkin was soft, then I adjusted it for salt and added plenty of fresh basil leaves. I wanted to add some of my Vietnamese mint but it has all dried up (no rain in Auckland either) but the basil was strong flavored and I was surprised how nice this tasted in the end! I though of using this as a side dish (like in the photo) but I run out of time to make the main and since this dish had so much sauce I just added some cubed firm tofu to it when I warmed it up for dinner. I served with Thai rice. Very nice way of eating pumpkin in summer!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Pumpkin and red onion soup with thyme and rosemary flowers

Ingredients:

1 red onion

2 tbsp olive oil

2 kg pumpkin flesh

1 celery stick with leaves

2 l vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to taste

A few sprigs of thyme

A few rosemary flowers

Instructions

A nice soup for the weekend, simple, just chop a red onion and sauté with olive oil. Add cut and peeled pumpkin, a celery stalk with leaves and some vegetable stock. When the vegetables are cooked blend the soup, adjust with salt and pepper and then decorate with fresh thyme and rosemary flowers (these can be eaten and will give the soup a lovely rosemary flavor without any of the woody leaves!).

Happy Weekend to all!

With this recipe I take part in the  The Soup Kitchen Monthly Blogger Event, this month's theme is Olympic Soup.

Photos and Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini 

My Favourite Pumpkin Soup (with Eastern herbs and coconut)

The original recipe is here, but this time I didn't roast the pumpkin because... I had time to cut it! (I don't like cutting pumpkin...). Also I had some celery so I put that in too, plus one carrot and one onion.

I added water and organic veggie stock (Rapunzel), and when the veggies were soft I blended them with an immersion blender. 

 At this point I usually add the coconut milk/cream, but I didn't have any, so I used this coconut powder my husband brought me from a trip to Hainan in China (the place is famous for coconut!). he was told to place the content of a sachet in a cup and add hot water to make a hot coconut drink. We did, and it is ok, basically it is just coconut... but I am not really used to drink hot coconut milk, so I added 4 sachets to the soup instead (we still have plenty more). I simmer everything for a bit longer and then added coriander and Vietnamese mint to flavour.

I love this soup!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Pasta with pumpkin and porcini mushroom cream

This is the last baby bear pumpkin that I harvested last Autumn from my garden, and kept it in my potato draw for months (the others got eaten during Winter). Yesterday I finally cut it to take part the Italian blogging event Fuori di Zucca; the recipe is a bit.. Autumn style, I know, but it may be useful now for the readers in the Northern Hemisphere. 

I planted baby bear pumpkins for three years, and loved them, they are little so when I cut them they are perfect for one meal. To be honest last year I had a new mysterious pumpkin too in my garden (possibly from a seed in my compost), and my baby baby bears were quite different! Some were green and some were gray... A friend told me that I may had some cross pollination going on.  This year I planted a different pumpkin, a big Italian one, and had no more space in the garden for baby bears... I regret it now, when I cut my last tiny pumpkin inside it was fresh and perfect and sweet smelling... what a perfect veggie to grow since it can be stored for months! 

For the sauce I used 20 g or dried porcini mushrooms soaked for 30 minutes in water. I cut the pumpkin and cubed it, then passed it in a pan with 20 g of salted butter (Vegan can use margarine) and a couple of peeled garlic cloves. When the butter started sizzling I added the porcini and their soaking water.

Instead of salt I added one organic vegetable cube. I covered the veggies with a lid and let then simmer  for about 30 minutes. Then I added 200 ml of cream (Vegan can use vegetable cream) and simmered the sauce for about 20 more minutes (on low). I finished it with some freshly chopped parsley. The creamy sauce was perfect for tortiglioni pasta, and the pumpkin was so creamy and soft that it melted in the mouth. Very nice with a glass of Pinot Gris :-).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

With this recipe I take part to Su le maniche's event Fuori di Zucca 

Go for orange colours... but the last photo is missing!

I was not sure if you post this or not... I roasted some veggies, pumpkin, potatoes (previously boiled but not too soft) and orange kumara with red onion... everything was drizzled with olive oil and the first two were seasoned with salt, smoked paprika, garlic, cumin seeds and just a little chili. The kumara and red onion just had salt and olive oil, and once baked I added some Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena. Everything was so yummy, but ... by mistake I must have deleted the image with the roasted veggies! I looked for it on my phone, it was gone, completely gone! I think that these days I am taking far too many photos with my iPhone, and to make space I need to delete a lot of them, and sometimes I delete them before downloading them!!! Yes, it is not the first time that something like this has happened :-(. Does it ever happens to you? And does anyone know how many pics I can have on my iPhone at any moment? I am so scared of overloading it... thank you and enjoy the pics of the 'raw' vegs!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Kids and Pumpkins

Come si chiama questa zucca?

John showed me his Italian pumpkin from his veggie plot. As soon as I saw it I though of zucca barucca, but I am not so sure now, so many years have passed since I had one... maybe the name is not correct. Italian bloggers please: if you know this type of pumpkin tell me if it really is a zucca barucca :-)

John says that this pumpkin was collected before the plant died, so it may not be fully mature (I think that the zucca barucca is green first, and then turns yellow...) but as the garden plot is next to the road it was better to harvest it early, or passers-by may have been tempted to steal it. He gave me half.

Half is a lot, we made a soup, a sweet pie, some ravioli... and I still have some left!

The kids made the ravioli. I prepared some pasta dough for them (recipe here), then I took out the pasta machine and handed it over to two very excited kids. They took turns rolling the pasta out, from the larger to the thinner setting, and when I say 'took turns', I mean literally: one roll each, and then start again, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl...

In the meantime I made a quick filling for the ravioli: I used some steamed pumpkin (steaming is better than boiling, which would make the pumpkin too soft, but baking also works well), added some feta cheese, breadcrumbs, and salt and pepper to taste. The children placed a sheet of pasta on the ravioli tray and added the filling.

Then they placed a second layer of pasta on top and rolled it well to seal the filling in place and shape the ravioli. Traditionally in Italy we make tortelloni with pumpkin, but this is quicker, and the kids really enjoyed using the ravioli tray.

Ecco fatto!

They used up all the pasta, and ate the rest of the filling with their fingers! A few cuts of pasta from the sides of the ravioli tray were stored aside and made into maltagliati, a sort of fat irregular tagliatelle which we later used to put into a pumpkin and bean soup.

We cooked the ravioli by dropping them in salted boiling water, and collected them with a slotted spoon as soon as they were ready (they only take a few minutes) to then toss them in a pan with melted butter and sage. A perfect dinner!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Zuppa dell'Orto

From my garden

This is what I got from my garden: yellow and green beans (a few of the yellow beans where overgrown so I collected the big purple beans inside), celery, tomatoes and my first mini pumpkin. All in the pot, with some rain water and rock salt. Yep, rain water, our water comes from the sky and we collect it in a big tank. Can't stop thinking that a soup like this is almost self-sufficient, a part from the salt!

Since my leeks are not ready and I don't have any onions or garlic in the garden, I thought of adding some chives at the end, for that 'oniony' kick. But you know what? When I lifted the lid it smelled like I had just entered a huge veggie garden. The aroma was so strong and perfect that I didn't add anything else.

It was a filling and satisfying garden soup (I called it zuppa dell'orto), you can add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and/or some freshly ground black pepper in the end, or some pasta for a thicker earthier flavour. Sorry I forgot to take a photo when it was in the plates, and it got eaten so quickly!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Roasted Leek and Potato and Other Soups, with iPhone Camera+

A few weeks ago my little boy started wearing dental plates, and since it is still hard for him to chew I have been making lots of creamy soups. Soups are nice, and quick, but not necessarily photogenic. To make it more fun I have been using the Camera+ iPhone application that Arfi showed me.

Roasted leek and Potato Soup with Leek Broth

Generally I sauté the potatoes and leeks in the pot to make this soup, but I wanted to try something different. So I cut the potatoes (Agria) and leek in big chunks, placed them in a roasting dish lined with baking paper, added olive oil and salt and roasted everything for about 30 minutes. I didn't want the potatoes to become brown, just lightly roasted on the outside, and soaking up the flavour from the leeks.

I washed the green leaves from the leek (the ones that are too hard to be eaten) and place them in a pot of water with some rock salt. I cooked the leaves until I got a fragrant and light leek broth. I removed the leaves and added the content form the roasting pan, oil included. I cooked everything for other 30 minutes, then blended the soup with an immersion blender.

The iPhone photos are so bright, not something I would use all the time, and not really suited to printed photos, but certainly fun for blogs, and soups!

Another good soup combo: Pumpkin and smoked garlic.
Here I just cooked some pumpkin (add a carrot for a brighter orange color) in vegetable stock, and before blending I added a couple of cloves of smoked garlic. More garlic salt and spices can be drizzled directly on the plate.

And then broccolini (from my garden), and potato soup.
Simmer the veggies in vegetable stock, blend and drizzle with
extra virgin olive oil.




















These soups are vegan, inexpensive, easy to make, gluten free, and healthy, so I am taking the chance to contribute to this great initiative, promoted by Oggi Pane e Salame, Domani..., to create awareness about Endometriosis.

Grazie Sonia!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©