Pumpkin Ricotta Penne

I tend to avoid meat if my husband is out so last night marked an ideal opportunity for some veggie indulgence since he, along with most of Hong Kong's male Scottish population, were plying themselves with scotch and haggis at the city's largest, men-only, Burns night supper. I, meanwhile, retired to the spare room to await the whisky fumigation unit before reentering the master bedroom... This pasta is made entirely from red lentils, so gluten-free, high in protein, and available at SpiceBox Organics (made by Tolerant Foods HK). The kids loved it and I jazzed up mine a little with a drizzle of organic, heady olive oil from Green Vitamin and a pinch of cayenne. 

What you need:

2 cups uncooked red lentil penne (or other pasta)

1 cup cubed pumpkin

30 ml  standard olive oil

250g ricotta

1 egg

Pinch of dried thyme

100g Parmesan grated

50 ml extremely fine olive oil

Salt & pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Dice your pumpkin and lay it across a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 20-30 mins until soft and a little caramelised.

While your pumpkin bakes, boil your pasta until slightly underdone by a couple of minutes. It will cook more in the oven later.

Whisk an egg into the ricotta and add the thyme.

Remove your pumpkin from the oven but keep it turned on at the same heat.

Combine with cooked pumpkin, pasta, ricotta, egg mixture and half the cheese.

Place into a ovenproof bowl, season with salt and pepper, and scatter the rest of the Parmesan on top. Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve it as it is for the kids, but for the adults, drizzle with a VERY good olive oil and add a pinch of cayenne on top.

Serves 2-3 adults.