This is one of my favorite fall dishes. Because pumpkins are hard (literally) to work with, its only something I make once a year, but its definitely worth the effort.

Before I started cooking on a frequent basis, my notions of pasta sauce included red (tomato) and white (cream) sauces. If you’re been to an even mildly-fancy Italian restaurant you’ve probably discovered many other possibilities (basil pesto, oil-based sauces, butter sauces, etc.) However pureed vegetable sauces weren’t something that I had ever considered. But they are wonderful.

This is a treatment of pumpkin as a savory item, so don’t be thinking along the lines of a pie. The seasoning is straightforward, and the pumpkin, if ripe enough, comes through beautiful and simple.

Pumpkin rinds are hard and require some patience to work with. Be careful, work slow, and make sure your knife is sharp. This makes “enough for threshers”, so you’ll have plenty of leftovers to freeze, and you can thin the sauce with a bit more stock for a perfectly good soup.

Items

  • 3lb ripe pumpkin, seeds removed, peeled, wedged, and cut into thin slices (see below). One medium-sized pie pumpkin works fine.
  • 1 bunch of leeks (2-3 medium), white part only, cleaned, and cut into halves and thinly sliced
  • 2-3 carrots, finely diced
  • 2 sticks celery, finely diced
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 32oz stock (I used good-quality vegetable “no chicken” stock)
  • 6oz heavy whipping cream
  • 1 cup freshly-grated Parmagianno-Reggiano cheese
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika
  • 1/2 tsp freshly-grated nutmeg
  • 1lb fresh egg pasta
Method

  1. Cut the pumpkin in half (very carefully!). Remove seeds and strings, set aside (you can roast them!). Scrape out the inside so that its clean.
  2. Cut the pumpkin into wedges no more than 3″ thick. For a medium pie pumpkin this means cutting each half into a quarter, and then each quarter into four wedges. You basically need slices small enough to work with.
  3. Lay each slice with one side flat on your board, and then you can cut the rind off in several straight cuts along the curved rind. This is the safest and fastest way to do this.
  4. Run the slices through your food processor with the slicing attachment to get thin slices. Now that we have the pumpkin prepared we can make the sauce.

  5. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large pot.
  6. Add the leeks and sweat in the butter for 3-4 minutes.
  7. Add the celery and carrot, and cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  8. Add the pumpkin and stir everything together, cooking for another 5 minutes.
  9. Add enough stock to cover the pumpkin. Bring to a boill, cover and cook for 20 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally so the pumpkin doesn’t burn (I had it burn a little once). Add more stock if it gets low (but it shouldn’t).
  10. When the pumpkin slices are completely tender, turn off the heat and puree the sauce. A hand stick blender works great for this (and worth the twenty bucks to have on hand), but your blender works okay too. Avoid the food processor unless you want to be cleaning this off of every surface.
  11. Bring the sauce back to the stove, and add the seasoning. Salt to taste (depends somewhat on the stock). Watch out for the white pepper, as it stronger than you think. Black pepper works okay too, but white is prettier. Freshly-grated nutmeg is key (use your finest grater if you don’t have a plane grater), and I tend to like a bit more. Stir well.
  12. Add the cream. Stir. Add the cheese. Stir.
  13. Cook the egg pasta. When its done (only takes about 3 minutes), drain, and add two cups of the sauce to the pasta to coat.
  14. Serve with more of the sauce ladled over the top, with more freshly-grated cheese.