Lorenza was a colleague of mine for many years when I was working in a pharmaceutical company.
She knows how to cook very well, butdespite this, and to my extreme disappointment, she is super slim. How it is possible I do not know!
The recipe was given to me during one of the super-crowded dinners that she used to organize in her mini-apartment when she was still single.
Pasta with pumpkin and speck
- Preparation time: 40X minutes
- Ingredients for 4 servings
- Difficulty: Easy recipe
- Ingredients
- 350 gr or 12 oz of pasta
- 700 gr or 1 lb 8 oz of pumpkin
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- 1 clove of garlic
- 110 gr or 4 oz of cream (optional)
- 200 gr or 7 oz of speckin slices
- Grated Parmesan cheese to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Instructions
- Boil the water for pasta in a pot.
- Wash the pumpkin, remove the peel and cut into cubes.
- In a pan with oil and garlic cook the pumpkin over moderate heat, adding some water if it is necessary.
- When the pumpkin is ready, add the cream and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- In a non-stick pan cook the chopped speck until it becomes crispy.
- In the pasta saucepan, salt the boiling water with the coarse salt and stir the pasta.
- Cook the pasta until “al dente” and then drain. Stir for a couple of minutes in the pan with the pumpkin sauce. Salt if necessary. Add some Parmesan and the crispy speck and serve.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- The pumpkin should be cooked for a few minutes with a cover so as tolet out all the water contained in it. Then it should be left to dry over moderate heat for at least twenty minutes.
- The speck must be cooked in a cold pan. Bring it to moderate heat until it is colored and then put on absorbent paper until it is used. In this way, it remains crunchy.
- To best cook pasta, 1 US quart of water must be considered for every serving.