I opened my fridge and realized that I haven’t used the pumpkin I bought 2 weeks ago! Not wanting to waste anything, I cut them into small cubes, tossed them with some oil and roasted them. I was thinking of what to do with them once they are done; pumpkin salad with chickpeas, pumpkin omelette, couscous with pumpkin and feta cheese…. the possibilities were endless (according to the ingredients I have in my fridge, of course).
I opened my grains drawer (yes, the whole drawer dedicated to all different sorts of pastas, rice, grains, etc) and saw a half packet of San Remo wholemeal spaghetti left. It didn’t take me too long to decide what to have for lunch.
Pumpkin and bacon with wholemeal spaghetti it is!
I also tossed them with few slices of bacon (which you can omit if you want to make this dish vegetarian), grated parmesan cheese and voila, lunch is done! Oh, while waiting for the pumpkin to roast, I also made a super easy and quick BTF (Basil Tomato Feta) salad.
Roast Pumpkin
Ingredients
¼ Large pumpkin (mine was close to 1kg)
2 tbs Olive oil
1 tsp Sea salt
1 tsp Chilli flakes
2 tsp Rosemary
2 tsp Black Pepper
Directions
Heat oven to 180C. Using a metal spoon, scoop out the seeds and insides of the pumpkin. Use a sharp knife to cut them to cubes. Combine olive oil with all the spices.
Place cubes of pumpkin in a casserole dish, drizzle with the olive oil rub, roast for 20-25 minutes, set timer on your phone and get ready to make the TBF salad!
BTF Salad
Ingredients
1 small packet of cherry tomatoes
1 handful basil leaves
1 tbs feta cheese, crumbled
Directions
Half the cherry tomatoes, chop basil leaves and toss altogether with crumbled feta cheese! Season with olive oil and black pepper if you want to. I didn’t add anything else because I wanted to taste the freshness of the ingredients.
Pumpkin & Bacon Wholemeal Spaghetti (serves 2)
Ingredients
Roasted pumpkin
200gr Wholemeal spaghetti
3 cups water
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
3 slices of back bacon
1 tbs Parmesan (to finish, optional)
1 tsp flat leaf parsley (optional)
Directions
Boil the water, add salt and oil so the spaghetti won’t stick together. When the water boils, put the spaghetti. Set timer to 13 minutes. While waiting for the spaghetti, cut the bacon to small squares and toss them in a hot pan. I like them slightly crispy.
After 13 minutes, drain the spaghetti (save ½ cup of the water), toss the spaghetti into the same pan with bacon, pour the saved water, adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, chili flakes. save the parmesan cheese.
By the time I finished cooking the spaghetti, the pumpkin was done too. I put the spaghetti in my bowl, topped it with generous servings of pumpkin and grated parmesan cheese.