Homemade Pumpkin Pasta With Ground Beef Sauce

If you want to try a different type of pasta and have some free time, you should try making your own homemade pasta.

For the pasta:

1 medium sized pumpkin (check the image)

3 to 4 cups of flour

For the sauce:

500 gr of ground beef

1 bell pepper (big one)

3 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce

4 tbspoon of soy sauce

4 tbspoon of chopped parsley

2 garlic cloves (chopped)

1 medium onion (chopped)

4 tbspoon of tomato paste

2 cups of water

2 tbspoon of flour to make the sauce more thick

Tomato sauce to taste

salt to taste

Tools

knife

hand mixer, silicone whisk or potato masher

pizza cutter

Wooden cutting board if you don't want to deal with the mess in your kitchen

Plastic film

Measuring cup

Rolling pin

2 or 3 pots

Big bowl

Bring about 4 cups of water to boil, meanwhile peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Cut it in small pieces (the smaller the better because it will take less time to cook).

Put the pumpkin pieces in the water and let it boil for 45 minutes. Remember to check the tenderness of the pumpkin, when it begins to melt take a silicon whisk, potato masher or hand mixer and puree the pumpkin.

This is how it should look like.

Let it cool down before you pour it to a measuring cup. This step is important because you will now how much flour you're going to need to make the pasta, for each 2 cups of puree you're going to use 3 cups of flour (more or less)

A medium sized pumpkin should give you about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of puree; it should be enough for a dinner of 4 people.

Put you puree to a side and let's begin with the sauce.

In a steel pot add about 2 tbspoons of vegetable oil. When it is hot add the 2 cloves of garlic. Keep them moving so they don't get burned. Once the garlic is roasted add the chopped onions and keep them moving until they are translucid, the add the 500 gr of beef. Let it cook, but stir it every once in a while.

While we wait for the beef to cook, we're going to roast the bell pepper. You can do it in a gas stove or in a chimney, but you need real fire to make it. Put the pepper over the stove and let it burn. Once you see that the skin is completely black rotate it to allow the fire to burn the other part. Depending of the size it should take about 10 minutes for each side. Remove from the fire and let it cool down.

Then proceed to remove the skin, I like to leave some pieces of it because of the taste. Cut the top part to remove the seeds and open the bell pepper. Also remove the white part and rinse off the remaining seeds.

Cut it in squares.

At this moment the beef should be done, add the bell pepper and a cup of water. When it makes the first boil, add the worcestershire sauce, the tomato paste and the parsley. Bring to low heat.

First bring water to boil in a deep pot. Add a little bit of salt.

Meanwhile add the pumpkin puree to a bowl with 1 cup of flour. Using your hands knead in the flour, add more as you need it.

With 2 cups of pureee I used about 3 1/2 cups of flour, but it was a cold and humid day. You should end up with a dough that doesn't stick to your fingers.

I used a wooden cutting board wrapped in plastic film because it's easier to clean, but you can use any surface as long as it is dry and you add flour to prevent the dough from sticking.

Take a part of the dough and roll it with a rolling pin until you get about 3 mm thick.

Using a pizza cutter, cut long strips of pasta and add them to the boilingļ water.

You'll know that the pasta is cooked because after a couple of minutes the pasta will float. (check the last picture)

If you like your sauce runny you can serve it just as it is, but we like the sauce thicker. Add 1 tablespoon of flour to half a cup of water and mix it. There should be no lumps when you add it to your sauce.

Stir in the flour mixture to you sauce and put it in a medium heat, you should let it boil once again. (If you don't there is going to be a taste of raw flour in the sauce)

Check the texture...

Serve and enjoy