Here is a simply delicious dish, wholegrain spaghetti served with a sauce of pumpkin, radicchio and crushed cashews. The sweetness of pumpkin and crunchy cashews is enhanced by the tastier and bitter note of radicchio in a dish that everyone will love. And then this recipe is also healthy. In fact, whole durum wheat spaghetti pasta satiates, brings energy and, having a low glycemic index, avoids dangerous peaks in blood sugar. Pumpkin, boiled and added to the pan only at the last moment, retains all its content in carotenoids, which are powerful antioxidants (Buzigi et al, Fod Sci Nutr, 2020), radicchio provides fibers and anti-aging substances that are preserved in a large part even after cooking and finally cashews are anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective (Liao et al, Heliyon et al, 2019 - Mahboobi et al, Curr Dev Nutr, 2019).
Ingredients
320 grams of whole durum wheat spaghetti
300 grams of pumpkin pulp
1 head of red radicchio
1 shallot
3 tablespoons of cashews
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper
Cut the pumpkin into cubes, the radicchio into strips and slice the shallot. Pour a liter of water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the pumpkin, when the boil is resumed, cook for 3 minutes, then drain the pumpkin. Brown the shallot in a large pan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Add the radicchio, mix and add a pinch of salt, cover with the lid and let it cook for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a ladle of water if necessary. When there are a couple of minutes left to cook, add the pumpkin. Boil the pasta and drain it al dente. Pour the pasta into the pan with the sauce, mix and let it cook for a minute. Then serve with a generous grind of black pepper and the coarsely crushed cashews.
