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Chocolate Pasta with Pumpkin and Goat Cheese

October 9th, 2011

Chocolate Pasta with Pumpkin and Goat Cheese

My mom showed up yesterday and she came baring gifts! The gifts were of the best possible kind in my opinion: edible.

One of them was a beautiful package of Chocolate Pasta she had found at the grocery store. Now I have made beet pasta and love the idea of flavored pasta’s- but chocolate had never crossed my mind.

It actually had package directions for serving it in a sweet way, but I changed the direction completely. Because I have about a dozen sugar pumpkins lying about, I have a list an arm long for pumpkin recipes that I have been wanting to make. Near the top has been pasta with pumpkin. The chocolate seemed like it would be a perfect compliment to the pumpkin.

I boiled up one noodle first, to make sure that it wasn’t too sweet or weird, and to my delight, it was really good. It tasted more like egg pasta with a slight cocoa edge- no sweetness at all.

So I paired it with tender chunks of pumpkin, sweet red onion and crispy pumpkin seeds (from the same pumpkin I chopped up.) Oh, and don’t forget the luscious chunks of melting goat cheese! It was the perfect finish to this gorgeous pasta dish which would be a total show stopper at any dinner party or family dinner.

By the way- my children heard “chocolate pasta” and actually ate this dish just based on the idea ☺

Chocolate Pasta with Pumpkin and goat cheese, serves 6
1lb chocolate pasta (plain pasta would work beautifully too)

4 cups pumpkin, peeled and seeded
2 Tbs Olive oil
½ red onion, thinly sliced
2 oz soft goat cheese, cut or broken into pieces
spiced pumpkin seeds
Kosher salt to taste

spiced pumpkin seeds
seeds of one pumpkin
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp Kosher salt
pinch of nutmeg
¼ tsp chili powder

Spiced pumpkin seeds:
1)Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2)Rinse and drain the seeds and lay out the seeds on a sheet pan with a silpat or a sheet of parchment.

3)Toss the seeds with the 2 tsp of olive oil.

4)Sprinkle the seeds with salt, nutmeg and chili powder.

5)Bake the seeds for about 10-15 minutes or until the seeds are golden and crispy.

6)Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

7)In a large pan, add the olive oil and the onion slices. Sprinkle them with salt.

8)Cook them until tender, about 5 minutes.

9)Cut the pumpkin into pieces.

10)Add the pumpkin pieces to the pan and cook until tender. (it is ok to add a few tablespoons of pasta water if the pan gets dry)

11)(This is about when you should add the pasta to the water, and cook according to directions.)

12)When the pumpkin is tender, about 8-10 minutes, add the pasta and toss until combined with the onions and pumpkin.

13)Add the cubes of goat cheese and plate while hot.

14)Sprinkle the toasted pumpkin seeds over the top of the pasta and serve hot.