Italian
The Frugal Foodie
From
The Frugal Foodie
season
1
episode
5
Pumpkin Rigatoni with Capsicum and Fetta
With
Steph De Sousa
Rigatoni in a roasted pumpkin and capsicum sauce with fetta and walnuts. Weeknight pasta.
SERVES
5
About this recipe
Justine Schofield's roasted pumpkin and red capsicum blitzed into a creamy sauce for rigatoni, fetta crumbled through at the end so it stays in chunks. Walnuts on top for crunch. Italian-leaning weeknight pasta, the kind that uses one tray for the roast and one pot for the pasta.
The roast-and-blitz technique is the modern home-cook approach to a creamy vegetable sauce that doesn't actually use cream. Kent pumpkin diced into 2cm cubes, red capsicum cut into similar pieces, brown onion in wedges, all tossed in olive oil and roasted at 180 degrees for thirty-five minutes until soft and caramelised at the edges. Blitzed in a food processor with a splash of pasta water into a smooth, vegetable-rich sauce that coats the pasta without needing dairy.
Kent pumpkin (the medium-large, blue-green-skinned variety with deep-orange flesh) is the right pumpkin for sauce-making. The flesh is naturally sweet and creamy, blitzes smoother than the more fibrous Jap or Butternut varieties; the orange colour reads bright against the green of fresh herbs scattered over the top.
The fetta-crumbled-at-the-end technique is the small move that gives the dish its textural variety. Crumbled into 1cm chunks rather than blitzed into the sauce, the fetta stays in distinct salty pieces that punctuate every forkful; the contrast between smooth sauce, firm pasta and chunky cheese is what makes the dish read as a composed plate rather than a uniform bowl. Chopped walnuts toasted in a dry pan scattered over the top; basil leaves torn over for green relief. A glass of cold pinot grigio.
Ingredients
- 1 x 200gm Emporium Selection block of Fetta Cheese
- 1 quarter The Good Stuff Kent Pumpkin
- 1 medium Brown Onion
- 1 large Red Capsicum
- 1 Tbsp Crushed Stone Mill Garlic
- 2 tbsp The Olive Tree Olive Oil
- 1 500gm bag Armando Rigatoni
- Handful of Oh So Natural Walnuts for garnish
Method
1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Line your baking tray with some baking paper. Remove skin and dice Pumpkin into 2x2cm squares and place them on the baking tray.
3. Remove the core of the Capsicum and slice it into larger chunks as it is a softer vegetable. Then place it on the baking tray with the Pumpkin.
4. Cut Onion in half leaving the skin on, place in baking tray
5. Cut a full head of Garlic into half and place it in the tray.
6. Now, place the block of Fetta Cheese in the centre of a baking tray. Drizzle with Olive Oil and season with Salt and Pepper.
7. Bake for 45 minutes until Vegetables are cooked and Fetta is soft.
8. While the Vegetables and Fetta are cooking, you can get started with the Pasta. Cook it as per instructions on the packet. Reserve some Pasta water for the sauce and drain the remaining Pasta. Set aside.
9. Once the Vegetables are cooked, allow it to cool down a bit. Squeeze the softened contents out of the Onion and Garlic discarding the skin and add it to the blending jug.
10. Add all the cooked Vegetables into the jug. Add 2-3 ladles of the reserved Pasta water in the jug and blend until smooth and creamy with stick mixer.
11. Now, toast the Walnuts on a pan or roast it in the oven. Keep it aside.
12. Assemble the Pasta by stirring in the creamy sauce through the cooked Pasta. Make sure the Pasta is covered with the sauce.
13. Spoon the pasta into bowls, and sprinkle the toasted Walnuts over it. Crack some Pepper on top before serving.
14. Keywords
15. pumpkin rigatoni, feta rigatoni, rigatoni, bacon rigatoni, rigatoni recipe, pasta recipes
Steph De Sousa
Steph De Sousa cooks as The Frugal Foodie, building recipes around what's already in the pantry and the produce nobody wants to throw out. Her style is straightforward and budget-aware without being austere: roast vegetable peelings, second-day rice, a freezer worked properly. She brings practical home rhythms to Savour and Wander.
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