After all these pumpkin dishes, you may be pumpkin-ed out at this point, but here’s one last dish you can make with any leftover pumpkin and turkey you may have, after the big day. It’s a quick weeknight meal, but it also makes for a great appetizer course at a fall dinner party: kabocha turkey pasta.
Not only do the colors scream “AUTUMN!” the nutty browned butter and sweet pumpkin taste like fall. The list of ingredients may be small, but by letting the butter, shallots and pumpkin really brown, the Maillard Reaction does all the heavy lifting, producing a wonderfully complex array of flavors.
I did this one with leftover roast chicken, but you could really make this pasta with just about any protein you have sitting around, including turkey, ham, or fried tofu. If you don’t have any Kabocha sitting around, butternut squash or orange sweet potatoes (often called “yams” in the US) work great as well.
Kabocha Turkey Pasta
Create a pasta dish with Thanksgiving leftovers such as turkey and pumpkin. This turkey pasta has the colors of autumn and great flavor from Marc Matsumoto of NoRecipes. Marc shares his inspiration for the recipe in a full post on the Fresh Tastes blog.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces pasta, boiled according to package directions
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 shallot diced
- 1 cup Kabocha pumpkin cut into 1/4” cubes
- 1 cup cooked turkey cut into bite-size pieces
- Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley or sage
Directions
- Boil the pasta according to the package directions.
- Add the butter to the pan and heat over medium heat until the butter is sizzling and has just started to turn brown. Add the shallots and Kabocha and fry until golden brown around the edges and the pumpkin is tender. Add the turkey, then salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the pasta to the pumpkin and turkey and toss to coat evenly. Add the parsley, toss and serve immediately.
Marc Matsumoto is a food blogger and photographer who spreads his passion for food through his websites norecipes.com and wanderingcook.com. For Marc, food is a life long journey of exploration, discovery and experimentation and he shares his escapades through his blogs in the hopes that he inspires others to find their own culinary adventures. Marc’s been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and has made multiple appearances on NPR and the Food Network.
