Baked Pumpkin Pasta With Ham And Chickpeas

It’s officially pumpkin season again! It felt like just yesterday was all about ice-cream and light salads. I for one, like everything to do with pumpkin. In soups, muffins, pancakes, bread, whatever I can think of. And one thing I couldn’t live without in my salads, is pumpkin seed oil.

I received a few pumpkins recently and decided to go a tiny bit meatless today. My first go-to recipe of the year will always be the baked pumpkin pasta. Don’t ask why, somehow it just happens. Maybe because it’s easy and quick, where I don’t have to stand in the kitchen for hours, and THAT is always a win deal for me.

Baked Pumpkin Pasta with Ham and Chickpeas

Beverlogue

Your ultimate comfort food during the cold months.

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Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Ingredients

  

• 1 pumpkin
• 1 onion big
• 100 g ham or bacon strips
• 200 g chickpeas
• 350 g bow-tie pasta
• 200 g mozarella grated
• 250 ml light cream
• Olive or Avocado oil to sprinkle
• Salt
• Pepper

Instructions

 

• Cut the pumpkin into cubes / thumb sizes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and oil. And bake at 200°C for 20 minutes (or till it's soft).
• Meanwhile, chop 1 onion and slice 100g ham (or bacon) into strips. You could either fry them in a pan for 7-10 mins (for flavour and crispiness), or bake them later alltogether. I did the latter.
• Keep an eye on the pumpkin. Once soft, remove from oven and leave it to cool for 5-10 minutes.
• Cook pasta according to instructions.
• Once the pasta is al dante (just before turning soft), drain the water and pour into a baking dish.
• In a baking dish (or pyrex), add the baked pumpkin, ham, chickpeas, onion, cream, 1 cup mozarella and pasta. Stir well.
• Sprinkle the remainder mozarella cheese on top and bake at 180°C for 15 minutes or till cheese melts.

Add parsley and basil into the dish for added taste and colour, which I forgot to do. Oops! Still, it tasted delicious and my kids said it was “Yummy!” As long as they approve of a meal and ate them, all is well. A mum’s life.

If you’ve made this recipe and did some changes here and there to your own taste, please leave a comment below and add a photo. I would love to hear from you! Enjoy!