Pumpkin pasta: A kid‑approved dinner delight

Noodle ribbons coated in a velvety sauce disappear from kids’ plates faster than nuggets with ketchup. It’s hard to say what specifically grabs their attention: maybe it's the colour of the sauce, or maybe its taste. Either way, they gobble it up eagerly.

You can make wonders with pumpkin, but we still limit ourselves to cream soup or sandwich spread. A dish that my children love is (of course) pasta with pumpkin sauce. I prepare it in no time, and for more demanding diners, I serve it with feta or parmesan cheese and roasted pumpkin seeds.

Pasta with pumpkin can be modified as you like. I like to enhance the sauce's flavour with sun-dried tomatoes, but if your kids aren’t fans of such additions, skip them and focus on something that will catch their attention. Maybe a bit of melted cheese on top? It’s not the healthiest choice, but it's worth it if it encourages the kids to try something more than nuggets.

Before preparing pasta with pumpkin, you should ensure you have pumpkin purée ready. Preparing this delicacy, as you might imagine, is not complicated. Simply bake or boil the pumpkin cut into pieces until soft (baking will give the purée a richer flavour). Then, blend the cooked pumpkin. That’s all. You can use any variety of pumpkin to prepare pasta with pumpkin sauce.

Ingredients:

• 100 grams pasta, e.g., tagliatelle,
• 100 grams pumpkin purée,
• a small onion,
• 2 garlic cloves,
• 200 millilitres broth or pasta cooking water,
• salt, pepper, oregano, sweet paprika,
• 6 sun-dried tomatoes,
• green onion/basil/parsley,
• olive oil or canola oil.

Preparation:

1. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions.
2. Chop the onion, slice the garlic thinly. Sauté the onion in olive oil or canola oil, and when it becomes translucent, add the garlic. Cook until the garlic softens.
3. Next, add the sun-dried tomatoes cut into strips, oregano, and ground paprika. Stir and cook the mixture for a few minutes.
4. Then add pumpkin purée and broth - enough to achieve the desired sauce consistency. You can also use pasta cooking water instead of broth.
5. Add the pasta to the sauce, stir well, and season with salt, pepper, and chopped herbs.
6. You can serve the pasta with pumpkin with roasted pumpkin seeds and a spoonful of grated parmesan or feta cheese.