Kids' new favorite dinner: Pasta with pumpkin sauce steals the show

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 color of the sauce, or maybe its taste. Either way, they gobble it up eagerly.

You can do wonders with pumpkin, yet we often limit ourselves to using it in cream soup or as a sandwich spread. A dish that my children love is (of course) pasta with pumpkin sauce. I can 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 flavor of the sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, but if your kids aren’t fans of such additions, skip it and focus on something that will catch their attention. Maybe a bit of melted cheese on top? It’s not the healthiest choice, but if it encourages the kids to try something more than nuggets, it’s definitely worth it.

Before you prepare pasta with pumpkin, you should make sure 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 flavor). Then blend the cooked pumpkin. That’s all. You can use any variety of pumpkin to prepare pasta with pumpkin sauce.

Ingredients:

                
• 3.5 oz pasta, e.g., tagliatelle
• 3.5 oz pumpkin purée
• a small onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 7 fl oz 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 and slice the garlic thinly. Sauté the onion in olive oil or canola oil until translucent, then add the garlic. Cook until the garlic softens.
3. Add the sun-dried tomatoes cut into strips, oregano, and ground paprika. Stir and cook the mixture for a few minutes.
4. Add enough pumpkin purée and broth 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. Serve the pasta with roasted pumpkin seeds and a spoonful of grated Parmesan or feta cheese.