When The Sauce Is The Star

Supper, Wednesday November 15: pumpkin and nasturtium sauce* over 3 cheese tortellini; multi-grain toast.

This is a good example of experimenting with ingredients on hand. The sauce came about in a "stone soup" fashion. I just kept adding things until I was satisfied with the result.

*Here's kinda how it went. It started with a healthy portion of cooked garden pumpkin and even healthier portion of nasturtium leaves and flowers. I sauteed these together to use later in a sauce because a frost was coming that would kill the nasturtiums. When I finally got to it I added chopped leek, minced shallot, and minced garlic. I sauteed this mix for a bit with some olive oil whilst pondering the rest of the ingredients. I decided to spice with harrissa. That was the most important choice. It really worked well well with the other ingredients. I finished with some vegetable base and half and half. This simmered for a bit, til thickened. 

As I was tasting while creating the sauce I began to realize that it was morphing into something more like a side dish, say heading toward creamed spinach. So rather than the sauce accompanying the pasta I wanted to think of it the other way. That is why when plating I put down a larger portion of sauce then the pasta and then more sauce, surrounding the pasta. A little paprika and done.