Greetings from Krakow guys, where I am based this week. The sun is shining and I’m about to head off for a run along the Vistula river. It’s unseasonably warm here this week and, to my great surprise, food market stalls are laden with beautiful, locally grown tomatoes in all shades of red.
I won’t lie to you, I’m enjoying the weather, although the awareness of what this unseasonal amount of sunshine is caused by and symptomatic of is definitely a bit of a killjoy. Having seen the local offering, a part of me feels that I should be publishing a local recipe heroing ‘malinowe’ (translates as ‘raspberry’) tomatoes this week. They are a prized local tomato with firm, sweet flesh and paper thin skin in a gorgeous shade of raspberry red, but as I did this recipe last week, while still in Bristol, pumpkin it is. After the sweet pumpkin pies of last Friday, which I ate far too many of BTW, I have gone with a savoury take on pumpkin today. I hope you’ll approve? It’s a plate of creamy pumpkin pasta with heaps of crispy and smokey coconut bacon and an optional sprinkling of crumbled fried sage. It’s an easy to make, indulgent, yet relatively healthy midweek dinner. Enjoy!
olive oil 15 fresh sage leaves finely ground sea salt
SAUCE
600 g / 21 oz firm pumpkin (I used butternut pumpkin), cubed* 1 tbsp olive oil 3 garlic cloves 120 ml / ½ cup plant milk (water or veggie stock) 35 g / ¼ cup raw cashews, soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes 2 tbsp / 30 ml lemon juice a good pinch chilli flakes, or more to taste 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional) 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg ½ tsp salt, more to taste black pepper, to taste 320 g / 11 oz of your favourite pasta, cooked (I used bucatini) a handful of fried fresh sage leaves (optional)
SAUCE
