Rozhdestvensky or Filippovsky fast is one of the longest and most severe. It always starts on November 28th and ends on January 6th, at Christmas. In Russia, there have always been many recipes for lenten dishes, housewives could not think about what to cook, but focus on the spiritual component of fasting. There are now also many recipes for lean dishes made from simple and affordable ingredients. For example, a recipe for pasta with pumpkin sauce.
The beginning of the Christmas fast is a time when round, fragrant pumpkins, rich in a variety of vitamins and minerals, are still in many cuisines. This vegetable is found in abundance in late autumn / early winter and in stores, so why not use it for a nutritious yet simple and lean meal?
You will need 500 grams of peeled pumpkin pulp, plus:
- 400 grams of egg-free durum wheat pasta;
- ½ tablespoon of olive oil;
- ½ head of onion;
- 4 sage leaves;
- 200 ml of vegetable broth;
- ½ teaspoon red pepper;
- 1 clove of garlic;
- salt, nutmeg.
Boil 5 liters of water. Add 40 grams of salt to boiling water (10 grams for every 100 grams of pasta). Add the pasta, preferably a wide one such as pappardele, fettuccine or tagliatelle, let the water boil again and stir the pasta. Stir every 2-3 minutes while cooking, following package directions.
Simultaneously with cooking the pasta, make the sauce. A good pasta comes out when it absorbs the sauce, which will only work if you mix both hot. Cut the pumpkin pulp into small cubes. Heat olive oil in a deep skillet and sauté chopped garlic and finely diced onion in it. Add chopped sage and a pinch of salt. Stir and sauté until the onions are translucent. Add pumpkin, a pinch of nutmeg, stir and pour in the hot broth. If you don't have stock, replace it with the water used to cook the pasta. Once the pumpkin is soft, puree it. Drain the water from the pasta and add it to the sauce, stir and serve your lean dish to the table.
Sage in a sauce can be substituted with thyme leaves or parsley. If you're not fasting, you can make pumpkin sauce with cream rather than broth and add about ¼ cup of ground Parmesan cheese to it.
