If you’ve never grown your own pumpkin before it’s a must try for next season. And if you have but it didn’t quite work the way you thought it should then as they say: “If at first you don’t succeed, grow, grow again.“ They can be quite overzealous so be sure to give them room to spread out. If you have a compost heap, which you should, it would be the perfect spot to plant a few seeds and watch them thrive while offering a pretty leafy lid to conceal a normally unsightly eye sore.

Gardens around the country should be offering up plenty of pumpkins for harvest in March and even if you don’t have any of your own the shop shelves should be thick with produce. The other ingredient you’ll need to make our delicious recipe below is some baby spinach, also readily available to harvest, fresh from your own back yard, for avid gardeners. Give this mouthwatering dish a test drive, you won’t be sorry!

Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

Ingredients:

• 400g Pasta
• 60g baby spinach
• Pumpkin, cooked and pureed

Sauce

• 1 cup pumpkin puree, see above
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon diced onion
• 3/4 cup thick cream
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• 1/4-1/3 cup grated parmesan
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• salt to taste

Nuts

• 1/4 cup chopped pecan nuts
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation:

• Boil the pasta until al dente.
• While the pasta is on, put the unpeeled garlic in a small pan and cook until it’s golden in colour.
• Add the pine nuts to toast them.
• Remove the garlic from the pan, remove the peel and crush it into a big pan.
• Add the butter, onions and toasted pine nuts, cooking until the butter is melted.
• Add the pureed pumpkin and mix well.
• Put the mixture in a blender and blend until smooth.
• Put everything back into the large pan and add the cream, vegetable stock, cheese and nutmeg.
• Mix everything together well and add salt to taste,
• In a small pot, add the pecan nuts and heat through.
• Add the butter and cook until melted.
• Add the brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Stir a few times and then spread out on some wax paper to cool.
• Mix the pasta and sauce together and add the fresh baby spinach just before serving. Serve with a sprinkling of nuts.

Serves 4