Pasta with Japanese Pumpkin, Pine Nuts, and Parmesan

I don't know how something that starts out orange (note the color of the pumpkin on top) can turn so green. Both the garnish and sauce are cooked so it's not the cooking or exposure to air.

I'm not a big fan of pasta, or any kind of noodle for that matter. I could never have been one of those college students who subsisted on things like "Top Ramen." Of course, I'm convinced that ramen is evil. Shawn's one and only MacBook was destroyed when a bowl of ramen lept from his hand and splattered itself on the keyboard. Well, either that or he carelessly held the bowl over the keyboard and dropped it. Either way, you just can't trust noodles!

Despite the fact that I would never leave a noodle alone with my wallet, I did decide to try a pasta dish. My motivation was less a love of noodles than a desire to use some of the kaboucha, or Japanese pumpkin, that I'd cooked up for something other than stuffing it into my greedy maw as delicious chunks of squash heaven. I've eaten plenty of kaboucha, but never used it for much of anything else as I tend to use American pumpkin puree when I cook with pumpkin. It's not as sweet and is more flexible (not to mention cheaper). If you don't have access to kaboucha and want to try this, you can use butternut or acorn squash.

I chose to make a sauce for pasta because I thought that Parmesan cheese and pine nuts would pair well with the pumpkin flavor and I frankly can't think of anything other than pasta that goes well with both of those ingredients. Here is what I came up with:

Japanese Pumpkin Sauce:

• 1 tbsp. butter
• 2 small cloves of garlic (or 1 big one)
• 1/2 large onion (or 1 whole small one) diced
• 320 grams of Japanese pumpkin (kaboucha) cooked and cubed
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 1/2 tsp. sage
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat a heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat. Add butter and when it has completely melted, saute the onions and garlic cloves. Cook until the onions are softened and slightly browned. Remove 6 (smallish) cubes of the pumpkin for garnish and add the rest of the pumpkin to the onions, garlic, and butter. Stir and mash the pumpkin roughly to mix with the onion mixture. Add the sage, salt, and pepper. Stir and cook for about 3 minutes. Add milk, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for about 10 minutes. If it seems too thick, add more milk as needed. When the mixture is cooked, puree it in a small bowl food processor or an immersion blender.

Serve over warm pasta, top with toasted pine nuts, Parmesan, and garnish with reserved pumpkin pieces.

My feeling about this was that it was good and I really liked the flavor, but I wasn't really pleased with the mix of textures. I think the sauce was too thick and could have used some more milk. I also wasn't wild about the mixture of pasta with pumpkin in terms of texture. I was quite pleased, however, with the mixture of Parmesan, pine nuts, sage, and the pumpkin sauce.

I wasn't over the moon about this, but I'm likely to try it again some day with some variations. I think more milk would be a good idea, and it might possibly go well over rice for that matter. If you care about calories, this recipe makes 3 servings and the sauce is about 415 calories for the whole batch.

by Shari (Orchid64)

Red Wine Pasta Sauce

Boredom is a powerful motivator. Well, it is for me. Some of us find that boredom motivates sitting slack-jawed and staring at the nearest wall, or television, whichever comes first. It was a sense of gustatory boredom which set me virtually thumbing through the pages of Nibbledish for recipes. Of course, since I'm in Japan, I had to make a fair number of modifications to use food stuffs that I can actually purchase without going to an import shop and/or spending my nest egg. Here's the original recipe on Nibbledish which includes such exotic items (for me) as Italian sausage and celery (which I hate, and costs a lot, so I skipped it).

Here is my modified recipe:

• 3/4-1 lb. ground pork (depends on how meaty you want your sauce)
  
• 1/2 large onion (or 1 small one)
• 1/2 large carrot
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 fresh tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 tsp. dried sweet basil
• 3/4 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
• 1/4 tsp. (fine) hot pepper flakes
• 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 1 cup red wine
• 1/3 cup whole cream
• salt to taste (I used about a teaspoon)

Preheat a large skillet so that it is good and hot before you add the meat. There is no need to add oil to the pan! Cook the ground pork over medium to medium-high heat until slightly browned. Drain off as much fat as possible. While the pork is cooking, cut the onion into quarters and pulse in a food processor to coarsely chop. Add the onion to the cooked pork and stir in.

While the onion is cooking, peel the garlic clove and blitz it in the food processor until it's in tiny pieces (or mince it with a garlic press). Peel and slice the carrot and toss it into the food processor and process it until it is in tiny pieces. Add the carrot and garlic to the pork and onion mixture. Stir well and allow to cook for about 5-10 minutes.

Sprinkle the flour onto the top of the meat then stir well to mix. Add the red wine and allow the mixture to cook and thicken such that the wine reduces by at least a third. Add the canned tomatoes and dry spices (except the salt) to the mixture. Core and quarter the fresh tomatoes and puree them well. Add to the mixture, heat to a vigorous simmer, cover, and lower the heat. Allow the sauce to gently simmer for about a half hour. The carrots should be cooked and the flavors developed. At this point, taste and add salt as needed. Finally, stir in the whole cream. Serve over your favorite pasta.

If you think the flavors are too strong, you can add more cream than I did, but I liked it fine as is. This makes an immense amount of sauce. I'd guess that this is the equivalent of two big jars, only with a lot more heft because of the meat.


I'm sure the wine features heavily into the final taste profile. I used part of a bottle red wine our landlord gave us as a gift. It's pretty good wine, or at least Shawn tells me. I actually hate wine. Just a sniff of it makes me want to stick my tongue out and go "bleeech." However, it was damn good in this sauce.

by Shari (Orchid64)