Friday, May 28, 2010

Pumpkin Sauce - While pumpkin is still available

At least once a week pumpkin is still in our menu.




Today we tried this recipe




SUGO DI ZUCCA* PUMPKIN SAUCE *

Serves 6

400 g. of skinned pumpkin,
50 g. of bacon,
10 red cherry tomatoes,
200 g. of vegetable stock,
1 carrot,
1/2  red onion,
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil,
salt,
pepper

Sauté finely chopped carrot and onion in extra virgin olive oil.

Add the pumpkin and the bacon  previously cut into cubes, pour in the vegetable broth and cook for about fifteen minutes.
When almost cooked add the red tomatoes, cut into 4 wedges and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for  another 10 minutes.
Pumpkin sauce is particularly suitable for small pasta formats.

And now my comments:
Good recipe, well balanced in its ingredients.  We tried it with small potato dumplings,  which were perfect with this sauce. It was delicious. Riguardo al brodo vegetale, fate come facevano le nostre nonne prima dell'avvento del poco salutare dado: preparatelo in casa; come consiglia Ernest Knam: fatene un bel po' e congelatelo per averlo sempre pronto e in caso siate a corto di brodo e tempo come faccio io se non ne ho: comprate del bel minestrone fresco al mercato cuocetelo ed il gioco è fatto :)) Mark decided to add a sprinkling of seasoned cacioricotta from Puglia, which is quite a sweet-tasting cheese and goes well with the sweet taste of pumpkin and carrots, while adding flavour to this dish. As regards vegetable stock, do as our grandmothers did before the advent of unhealthy industrially produced stock : make it at home, as recommended Ernest Knam: make a lot of it and freeze it for later so it's always ready and if you run out of stock and time as sometimes happens to me  buy some beautiful fresh ready cut minestrone vegetables at the market, cook them and that's it :))
And I come back to add:
Pumpkins that I find in Rome are not as flavorful as the once I used to eat in Australia (I make this comparison because it is the only experience I have ).  Even the texture is different, here they are often watery.

My impression is that pumpkins grown in the north of Italy  are better.  What  about pumpkins in English speaking countries? Which variety would you recommend?

 
* Book by Tiziana Colombo Pumpkin Cookbook

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