Pumpkin & Broccolini Pasta with Oregano Pesto

I slept in this morning. Such a momentous thing is actually worth repeating. I slept in this morning. All the way until 8:15am! I had woken up a couple of hours earlier with W but still felt exhausted (despite falling asleep last night on the couch at 9pm). S needed to get up for work anyways, so he got up to hang with W while I stayed in bed. Usually if I try and lay in while S and W are up making brekky and all kinds of noise I only lightly doze, but this morning I fell back into a deep sleep and probably would have stayed that way had W not come in and sat on my head.

When I did finally get up it was lovely and sunny, so W and I took a nice long walk through the streets then came home where W had her standard bowl of porridge (plain, no honey), and I had a bowl with honey, chia seeds, and the rest of the oven-baked rhubarb (recipe coming soon!) from the weekend. Now I’m sitting on the couch typing this, while W is sitting on the floor playing her latest game which involves folding blocks into a cloth, unfolding them, repeat. And again.

Despite the fact that I have a whole lot of work to do today, I’m feeling decidedly lazy. It’s probably a good thing I have the rest of this Pumpkin & Broccolini Pasta in the fridge to eat for lunch, otherwise it would be toast and avo for me. I threw together this pasta on the weekend after finding beautiful organic bunches of broccolini at the market and the cutest little pumpkins. I had originally planned a kind of cous cous dish, but in the end pasta felt right and I’m so glad I went with my gut – this was such an easy, light, and flavoursome dish.

Even though it is, technically, winter in Brisbane, it never actually gets all that cold here and so this dish is more of a spring pasta. The oregano pesto is light on the nuts, and the addition of lemon rind gives it a real summery taste. As this is such a simple recipe, use the best quality ingredients you can so that they really shine. Although, being pregnant, I couldn’t eat this with goat’s cheese, I’ve included it as an option in the recipe below as I think it would pair beautifully with the roasted pumpkin and oregano flavours. And of course this dish is lovely hot and fresh, but also fantastic cold for lunch the next day. In fact, I think it would make an ideal picnic dish (although maybe go easy on the garlic if you’re sharing it with your lover).

Enjoy!
Sarah x

Pumpkin & Broccolini Pasta with Oregano Pesto

Ingredients

200gms pasta (I used casarecce)
400gms pumpkin
200gms broccolini
Goats cheese, to serve (optional)

Pesto

Approx. 12 pistachios, shelled
¼ cup packed fresh oregano leaves
Rind of 1 small lemon
1 garlic clove
¼ cup extra virgin olive-oil
Salt & pepper, to taste

Method

Prepare the pesto by putting the pistachios, oregano, lemon rind, garlic and olive oil in a food processor and blending until combined. Set aside.

Heat your oven to 200°c/400°f. Chop the pumpkin into large-ish chunks, spread out in a single layer on an oiled baking tray, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake for approx. 25 minutes until tender. In the meantime blanch the broccolini by placing in a bowl, covering with boiling water and leaving to stand, covered, for approx. five minutes. Drain.

Bring a pot of water to the boil and cook your pasta until al dente. Drain.

In a large bowl combine the pasta, pumpkin, broccolini and pesto. Toss to thoroughly combine. Divide amongst four bowls and top with the goats cheese, if using.

Serves 4.

Notes: I used casarecce pasta, but penne or orecchiette would work well too.