Amazing Healthy Pumpkin Sauce for Pasta or Gnocchi

This is my first pumpkin recipe this season but if you have been searching for other pumpkin recipes here, you might have noticed that I am slightly obsessed with pumpkin. For me almost every recipe I have ever cooked with pumpkin was either “amazing” or “the best ever” or “unbelievable” and so on.

I just love pumpkin!!!!

But I have to say I only cook two sorts of pumpkin: Hokkaido and butternut squash. I have tried 2 or 3 other kinds over the years, but none of them was ever so delicious as the above mentioned. So I let it be and only buy these two, they are the easiest ones to find anyway. A spaghetti squash might be on the list from time to time as well, but really not too often.

So this sauce is again amazing, the best ever, unbelievable and so on. 🙂 I loved every bit of it, it was easy to cook, the children liked it, although they are normally not so keen on pumpkin as I am. I will definitely cook this again and again and I strongly recommend you try it as well.

We had the sauce with homemade giant gnocchi. It was the first time I made gnocchi, they were good but the recipe needs a bit of working on before being presented here. You can make your own favorite gnocchi recipe, buy ready made one or just cook some pasta. The sauce will be delicious no matter what you eat it with.

I tweaked the original recipe quite a lot, it was full of cheese and crème double and butter. Not that I don’t like that, but I really don’t need the extra calories. The way I made was perfect for me, I cannot imagine this tasting any better. So here is a lighter and extremely delicious pumpkin sauce for gnocchi or pasta.

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Amazing Pumpkin Sauce

Prep time:  15 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  40 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 Hokkaido pumpkin, about 500 g/ 1 pound after cleaning
• 1 medium onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• a small bunch of parsley
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• a pinch of saffron threads
• 230 ml/ 1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
• 150 ml/ ⅔ cup condensed milk 4% fat (of course unsweetened) or full-fat milk
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• gnocchi or pasta to serve
• more Parmesan to serve

Instructions

1. Wash the Hokkaido pumpkin, you don't have to peel it. Remove the seeds and cut the flesh into small cubes. Finely chop the onion and the garlic cloves. Chop the parsley as well.
2. Heat the butter and the olive oil in a large pan. When the fat is hot, add the saffron threads and leave for a few seconds. Add the onion, garlic and pumpkin, stir well and cook until the onions are translucent and the pumpkin glazed. Add half of the parsley and stir.
3. Slowly pour in the stock and the condensed milk and cook on high heat and uncovered until the sauce thickens. Blend the sauce.
4. Add the orange juice and salt and pepper to taste. If the sauce is too thick, add a few extra tablespoons of orange juice, milk or stock to taste. Stir in the rest of the parsley and the grated Parmesan.
5. Serve with gnocchi or pasta and more grated Parmesan on top.

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