Carrie in the Kitchen is a new monthly column by our friend Carrie Havranek who runs The Dharma Kitchen. Each month, she’ll take on the challenge of creating a dish out of a few things left over in her pantry in an effort to show how to get creative in the kitchen.
This recipe comes as a result of a culinary throwdown offered by the Culinary Exchange, a la the challenge on the NPR program The Splendid Table: Cook with what’s in your pantry. We capped it at four main ingredients and I was permitted to use other staples I had to execute the dish.
The struggle is real, friends. So many times we are presented with our pantry, fridge and/or freezer and wonder, what am I going to do with these ingredients? Often they are random bits and bobs of things; half-used boxes of pasta, rice that’s not quite enough for one full cup’s serving. Part of becoming a skilled home cook is cultivating your own ingenuity, making do with what you’ve got. In The Dharma Kitchen (and in other parts of life) we call that being in the flow. Besides: As the days grow shorter and colder, there’s definitely less incentive to hop in the car or walk down the street to gather a missing ingredient. Try to see the contents of your kitchen in a new way. You might be surprised.
My challenge was to take pumpkin puree, white beans, shallots and penne pasta and turn them into something. I typically use as many organic, local ingredients as possible—that’s my primary orientation to the kitchen—and so the pumpkin and white beans are organic, the shallots are from a local farm that whose practices I know and trust. As for the fresh sage, I have an abundance of it in my yard, so it was easy. If you don’t have any or don’t want to run to the store, you can skip the fried sage leaves and just use the dried herbs as specified. I just happen to love sage with any kind of winter squash, and frying up the leaves is kind of fun.
- 3 T. unsalted butter
- ¼ cup shallots
- 16 ounces penne pasta
- 1 cup pumpkin
- 1 cup white beans
- ¼ to ½ cup hot water
- 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
- ½ cup pasta water
- ½ tsp. rubbed Dalmatian sage
- 2-3 T. olive oil
- 10-12 fresh sage leaves (optional)
- Pecorino cheese for sprinkling
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- Melt the butter in wide, deep sauté pan over medium heat until it starts to bubble.
- Add the shallots and sauté for 3-5 minutes until they begin to soften.
- Meanwhile, fill a stockpot with salted water and cook the pasta according to package directions.
- Puree the pumpkin and white beans in a food processor or blender.
- Add a little bit of water at a time, as you might not need it all, until you’ve thinned it out to a sauce-like consistency.
- Transfer the sauce to the pan with shallots.
- Add the dried herbs and stir to combine.
- Drain the pasta, reserving about ½ cup of the water.
- Combine the pasta with the pumpkin-white bean sauce over low heat, stirring vigorously until the pasta and sauce are one.
- Pour a little of the pasta water into the pan if things get too clumpy.
- Finish with the last tablespoon of butter, incorporating it until it melts completely.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Heat the olive oil in a small pan over medium high heat.
- When the oil is good and hot, add the sage leaves, working in small batches if necessary.
- They’ll start to shrivel somewhat and darken in color when they are ready.
- Remove with tongs and drain on a paper towel.
- Garnish individual pasta dishes with a sprinkling of cheese and the sage leaves.
- You can either crumple them in or leave them whole, or a combination of both, which is what I did.
