Pasta with a tomato-based sauce is an obvious combination. But sometimes, it’s nice to change things up. I had a lot of pumpkin and I craved a big bowl of pasta. This was the result.

Note that you’ll need a blender to puree the pumpkin once cooked. I used a handheld and it was super simple and easy to clean up after.

Ingredients (4-5 serves):

  • 500 g pasta
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 500 g pumpkin
  • ½ red capsicum
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • ½ tsp sage
  • ¼ tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp chicken stock powder (eg Massel)
  • ½ punnet gold/cherry tomatoes
  • 60 g baby spinach leaves
  • 100 g reduced fat feta
  • ½ cup walnuts, chopped and toasted

Method:

  1. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil for the pasta. Cook pasta until al dente.
  2. Meanwhile, roughly chop the onion, garlic, pumpkin and capsicum. The pumpkin should be diced small for a quicker cooking time. Put the kettle on to boil.
  3. Heat oil on a medium heat in a large saucepan. Fry the onion, garlic and capsicum until onion is soft.
  4. Add pumpkin, nutmeg, sage and chilli and fry for 3-5 minutes.
  5. Add stock powder and 1 cup boiled water, from the kettle. Cover and let simmer for ~10 minutes, or until pumpkin is soft and cooked through.
  6. Pasta is probably about cooked by now – if so, drain the water and set aside.
  7. Allow to cool slightly and blend until smooth (I used a stick-blender).
  8. Add the pumpkin sauce to the pasta and return to a low heat. Mix through the tomatoes, spinach leaves and half of the feta and walnuts, until spinach has wilted.
  9. Serve in bowls and top with the remaining feta and walnuts.

Contributed by Sophie Brown, resident running dietitian. Find out more here.