Pasta with pumpkin & crispy guanciale

Easy, seasonal and delicious, creamy pumpkin pasta with crispy guanciale and almonds.

Serves: 2 // Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 250 g of short pasta

• 1 small onion

• 250/300 gr of pumpkin (cubed)

• 150 gr of guanciale or pancetta

• 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (more if using pancetta)

• 1 sprig of sage

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 20 gr chopped toasted almonds to garnish

• Optional, 1 tsp of sesame oil

Preparation

Remove the rind from the guanciale, slice in ½ cm thick slices, and chop into thick strips.

Gently fry the guanciale in a pan on low heat. This will slowly render the fat and the guanciale will crisp up to golden perfection. When done in about 10/15 minutes, drain the guanciale from the fat and pat dry on kitchen paper. Keep the fat in the pan.

When colder, chop the guanciale into a crumb (optional)

Now to prepare the pumpkin puree. Sweat the chopped onion in the guanciale fat adding only a little olive oil if needed. Add the sage and cook on low eat for 5 minutes until translucent.

Microwave hack: place the pumpkin in a microwave safe dish and cover with film. Cook at maximum power for about 10 minutes in sessions of 3 minutes each as you don’t want the tray and the oven to overheat. When soft, remove the pumpkin from the tray and add it to the cooked onion, season with salt and pepper to taste, remove the sage and blend until smooth. Optionally, add a teaspoon of sesame oil. Now place the pumpkin puree back into the sauce pan and drop the pasta in salted boiling water to cook.

Drain the pasta ‘al dente’ and toss straight away into the pumpkin puree. Stir and toss the pasta on high heat for 1 minute and add a ladle of pasta water and a drizzle of oil to loosen up the sauce. Mix until well coated and glossy and check the seasoning before plating.

Plate the pasta straight away and top with a generous amount of crispy guanciale and a sprinkle of chopped toasted almonds.