Serves: 4
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Preparation Time: 40 mins
Ingredients
• 1 large bag of fresh spinach
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• Decent glug of olive oil.
• 1 small pumpkin, sliced (seeds scooped out)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried garlic
• Salt & Pepper
• 650ml passata
• 250g fresh lasagne sheets
• 200g grated mozzarella
• 75g grated parmesan
Method
In a large pan saute fresh spinach leaves with olive oil and garlic, plenty of salt and pepper utnil the spinach is wilted. Set to one side to drain and cool.
Coat the pumpkin slices well in olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Once cooked, set to one side to cool a little.
Blitz the spinach mixture to a paste. Mash the cooled pumpkin with dried garlic and oregano.
Grease a deep baking dish well with butter or olive oil then pour half the passata into the bottom of the baking dish and season well.
Take the fresh lasagne sheets and slice them in half lengthways so that you have long rectangular pieces. Take the first piece and spoon a small amount of the spinach mixture onto the length of the fresh pasta, sprinkle some grated mozzarella on top of the spinach. Roll the the pasta into a tube then sit the tube upright in the baking dish. Take the second piece and fill with the pumpkin mixture, sprinkle grated mozzarella on top, roll and sit upright.
Continue filling and rolling the pasta pieces until the baking dish is full. Pour the remaining passata on top of the tubes and gently rock the baking dish back and forth until the passata sinks into the dish. Season well then sprinkle the top of the pasta with the remaining mozzarella and the grated parmesan.
Bake in the oven at 170 degrees for 30 minutes before serving.
You’ll have wonderfully crispy cheese and pasta bits on top but soft and yielding pasta underneath. This dish is all about the texture. I like to eat mine with a fresh salad. The kids love theirs with the other main food groups for lasagne eating; that is potato wedges and garlic bread. No coleslaw here!
Pumpkin Pasta Recipe
