Recipes: Halloween special

Halloween is coming up and it’s a deadly festival. It’s actually my favourite and the fact that it’s origins lie in the ancient Irish festival ‘Samhain’ makes it all the more intriguing.

I cram in as many horror films as I can in the month of October and embrace all the usual traditions in an attempt to spook myself into believing in the supernatural. Although in fairness; carving pumpkins and eating monkey nuts are not scary activities.

Last year, I read about a ‘haunted house’ near where I live and some friends and l headed down late one night on a Scooby Doo type adventure. I don’t know what we expected to see but when we got to the house; we got out of the car and had a look around when suddenly – nothing happened. Okay, it was completely pointless but I’ll probably do something similar this year.

So I’ve bought my pumpkin and I’m ready to do some killer carving but what to do with the pumpkin flesh? Well, there are loads of delicious dishes that can be made from this unappreciated ingredient. We’ll run two more recipes this Thursday and Friday. Here’s one to get you started.

Pumpkin and Sage Linguine (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 800g pumpkin flesh, chopped into small cubes

• 1tsp golden caster sugar

• 100g butter

• Small bunch sage leaves, roughly chopped

• 350g dried linguine

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 50g parmasan, grated

Instructions:

1. Place the pumpkin into a saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid. Sprinkle over the sugar and a generous pinch of salt, then drizzle over 6 tablespoons of water. Cover the pan, place on a medium heat and steam the pumpkin, stirring every so often for 10-15 minutes, or until it is soft but still holds its shape. You may need add a spoonful or two of water during the cooking the pan seems dry. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, put the butter and sage into a saucepan and heat gently until the butter is foaming, then turn off the heat. Boil the linguine in a pan of salted water for about 10 minutes until just cooked. When the pasta is cooked, scoop out a little of the cooking water, then drain and return the pasta to the pan.
3. Put the sage butter over a high heat until sizzling, then pour in the lemon juice. Place the pumpkin, melted butter, 3-4 tbsp pasta water and half the parmesan in with the linguine and give it a really good stir. Season generously with salt and pepper and serve with the remaining parmesan to sprinkle over.