A great way to enjoy Pumpkin or any squash you happen to have in the veg drawer is to make our Dairy Free Pumpkin and Vodka Pasta. Roasting the pumpkin with garlic and Violife Feta develops the flavours really nicely. This sauce couldn’t be much easier – its a bit time consuming with the roasting aspect, but after that it’s just blitzed in the food processor and then gently kept warm in a pot while the pasta cooks. We add in some chilli, and a bit of vodka to give it a bit of a kick as pumpkin needs a bit of a lift when cooked.
Our Dairy Free Pumpkin and Vodka Pasta is perfect when served with salad or some quick fried Kale. You can, of course, make the sauce in advance and keep it in the fridge for a day or two. Just gently reheat when you’re ready to use it. Add in a bit of the pasta water to loosen the sauce if it’s been in the refrigerator as it will have thicken up.
Pumpkin and Vodka Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Chopped up Pumpkin
- 8 Garlic cloves
- 125 g Violife Dairy Free Feta Or Dairy Feta if you can have it
- 1/2 Red Chilli - Chopped up finely, or more if you prefer
- 4 Tbsp Vodka
- 1/4 Cup Dairy Free Cream (we use Oatley)
- 1/2 Cup Vegetable Stock
- 1/4 Cup Toasted Walnuts or Pine nuts
- Reserve a bit of the pasta water to loosen the sauce a bit if needed
- 400 Grms Shell Pasta I think shells work best as they hold the sauce nicely.
Instructions
- Peel, seed and chop your Pumpkin
- Break up a head of Garlic, and pick out 8 decent sized cloves. Leave the skin on.
- Measure your Feta, but keep it in one or two big pieces
- Put the Pumpkin, Garlic and Feta onto a baking tray and bake for 25 minutes at 180°C, 360°F. Turn the Pumpkin over once during roasting.
- After 25 minutes take it all out of the oven. Let the garlic cool a bit, then peel the cloves. Put the peeled Garlic, Pumpkin and Feta into the blender and blend to a smooth consistency.
- Chop up your chilli and add that to the blender along with the Vodka, Stock and Cream. Blitz again.
- Pop the Walnuts into a frying pan with a little bit of oil and toast for a few minutes, put to one side.
- Put the sauce into a pan, and put on a very low heat. You want it to stay warm, not bubble away. Cook your pasta, and when it's done drain, but reserve some of the cooking liquid.
- Check the sauce, and add pasta water if you think it needs loosening up a bit.
- Mix the pasta with the sauce and serve topped with toasted Walnuts.
Here are some other great pasta sauces for you to try.
