Roasted Pumpkin Pasta

Roasted pumpkin, goats cheese and tomato pasta.

Although not authentically Chinese, this recipe was inspired by my time in Shanghai. Don't get me wrong, the food in China is super tasty, wonderfully affordable and incredibly convenient but sometimes you just need a taste of home from time to time, and this was ours.

This roasted pumpkin, spinach, pine nut and goat's cheese pasta dish was simple and comforting, but of course China being China, we didn't make it ourselves, the German-owned cafe down the road did. The young timid Chinese waiter's face used to light up when we walked in, not only because he was in love with my housemate with long wavy blonde locks, but because our order was simple- "liang-ge (two) pumpkin pastas". 

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

• 200g pasta of your choice
• 250g pumpkin 
• 50g goat's cheese (feta also works well) 
• 100g spinach
• 2 tablespoons tomato and mascarpone pasta sauce
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• 1 garlic clove 
• Olive oil 
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method: 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. 

2. Dice the pumpkin into 2cm cubes 

3. Place the pumpkin cubes on an aluminium foil lined baking tray.

4. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

5. Roast for 30 minutes 

6. Towards the last 10 minutes, start cooking your pasta according to the instructions on the packet.

7. When the pasta has around 5 minutes to go, start on your sauce!

7. Chop your garlic and fry in a large pan with some 2 tsp olive oil over medium heat.

8. After 1 minute, add two tablespoons of the tomato mascarpone pasta sauce and stir.

9. Add two thirds of the pine nuts (leaving the other third for garnish at the end) 

10.