Pasta - Pronto!!!

I felt like pasta for dinner tonight but I didn't want a meat based sauce - I had bacon for breakfast this morning and Yum Cha for lunch (Mmmmmmm... BBQ pork!) so I had more than my carnivore quota for the day! I picked up some winter veges on the way home (spinach, fennel and pumpkin) and came up with this. This pasta is a lovely vegetarian dish that tastes luxurious, takes very little time to make and looks great. The addition of the walnuts adds texture to the dish and the lemony, garlic sauce is a great accompaniment to the winter vegetables.

Fettuccine with Winter Vegetables and lemony garlic sauce

You will need: 1 cup pumpkin - cut into small cubes, Half bunch English spinach - sliced quite finely, 1 small bulb fennel, 1 medium brown onion, 2 tablespoons roughly chopped walnuts, 2 cloves garlic, 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind, 150ml cream, splash of olive oil, salt and pepper, parmesan cheese, Fettucine.

Method: Steam the pumpkin until cooked, but still firm. Set aside.

Slice the fennel and onion to a similar thickness as the fettucine. Cook the fennel, garlic and onion in a splash of olive oil. Cook on a medium heat until it starts to look transparent. You do not want to brown it, so keep an eye on the heat.

Put the water for the fettucine on to boil, adding plenty of salt. Once it boils, add the pasta.

While the pasta is cooking, return the onion/fennel to the heat and then add the cream, pumpkin and lemon rind. Mix it in well and allow it to simmer gently and reduce.

Add the walnuts, salt and pepper to taste.

When the pasta is cooked, add it to the sauce, along with the spinach. Combine gently, check for seasoning and serve right away with parmesan and cracked pepper.

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