Casarecce with Pumpkin and Orange Pesto
The unusual but tasty combination of ingredients in this pesto sauce will have your guests asking for seconds!
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- 45 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 400 g pumpkin (peeled, cleaned and cut into large cubes)
- 2 oranges (Grated orange rind from 2 and juice from 1.)
- 1/2 cup Parmesan or pecorino (grated)
- 1 garlic clove (chopped )
- 1/2 cup walnuts (shelled and chopped)
- 3-5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- salt (for pasta and to taste)
- black pepper (to taste)
- 1/2 handful fresh parsley for serving (chopped)
- 400 g casarecce pasta
- 100 g Taggiasca olives (pitted)
Instructions
- 1
Place pumpkin cubes on a sheet of baking paper in a baking tray. Sprinkle with olive oil and roast in the oven until starting to get soft and browned. (about 30 minutes at 180°)
- 2
When the pumpkin is done remove it from the oven and cut into smaller pieces.
- 3
In the meantime put water on to boil for the pasta. When it starts to boil add salt and bring to the boil again
- 4
Blend garlic, walnuts, grated orange rind and orange juice with 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a blender or food processor until quite fine.
- 5
Add the cheese and pulse 2-3 times again. If the mixture is too dry add a little more olive oil between pulses.
- 6
Add the pumpkin to the blender. Pulse 2-3 times more. You don’t want the pumpkin to be too smooth so it is better to add it last.
- 7
Stir in salt and pepper as required. The pesto is now ready
- 8
Heat a little olive oil in a medium sized frying pan.
- 9
Add the olives and cook them briefly.
- 10
Add the pesto sauce to the frying pan and mix it well with the olives.
- 11
Cook the pasta al dente in the boiling salted water according to the instructions on the packet. When the pasta is cooked, save a cup of the cooking water and strain it, add it to the pesto-olive sauce. If the sauce seens to dry, add some of the saved pasta cooking water.
- 12
Mix well and serve with a few chopped walnuts, parsley and grated parmesan.
- 13
Buon Appetito