I feel like I’m giving away family secrets here …. Sorry Mum!

When my brother and I were little, if Mum and Dad were going out and we were having a babysitter come over (which wasn’t often I should add!) we’d always have an ‘easy meal’ … read; Fish fingers or Cheesey tomato pasta.

Cheesey Tomato pasta was my favourite …. a bowl of spaghetti with a tin of condensed tomato soup stirred through it and a handful of cheese sprinkled over the top so that it would melt as you stirred it …. kid heaven!

Well, these days, our family diet doesn’t look much like that but there are (many!) still times when an ‘easy meal’ is required …. “cheesey ‘mato pasta” as it has become known in our house, is a hands down winner. Inhaled every time. Full tummies and a happy, easy dinner time – there’s a lot to be said for that!!

Check out the end of the recipe for a modification to also use this as a great pizza sauce!

• 1 small butternut pumpkin (roughly 800g before peeling and seeding)
• 1 400g tin kidney beans or butter beans, drained
• 100ml coconut cream (we use the Aayam brand)
• 1 cup tomato passata
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 4  heaped tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Optional: 1 small zucchini
• Pasta of choice

*You could swap out the coconut cream for creamed cheese or even regular dairy cream if your diet allows

Set a big pot of lightly salted water to boil for your pasta of choice (we use a GF variety). A legume based or a high protein pasta is a great addition here if you’re serving this as a meal on its own.

Peel and dice the pumpkin, then steam until soft – usually a few minutes in the microwave when this kind of dinner is required. If you have extra time (or some left over!), roasting the pumpkin adds a delicious depth of flavour too.

If you are adding a zucchini, dice and steam the it in the last couple of minutes with the pumpkin (you can peel it first if your little people are detectives for any green ‘bits’!)

Place the steamed veg and beans, with the tomato passata, into your blender/processor/bullet/thermal cooker together and blend until quite smooth (Start on speed 4 and work up to speed 6, for 10 seconds, then scrape down and repeat). Be very careful to follow safety instructions for blending hot ingredients. Add in the tomato paste, coconut cream, salt and nutritional yeast and blend again (speed 6, 10-15 seconds and repeat if necessary).

**If you are new to adding veg into your sauces, you could start out using less pumpkin and use more of your regular pasata or pasta sauce.

Cook and drain your pasta, then return to the saucepan and pour over the sauce.

Top with a little addition cheese of choice if you like.

Top with some crispy bacon if you wish – or fried mushrooms to keep it vegan.

This makes enough sauce for about 3 dinners, just freeze the leftovers.

You can use this for the sauce in pasta bakes or even double it for shared suppers (and Sunday School dinners in our case!). Add in extra veggies if you like, or throw in some left over bbq chook or sausages.

Enjoy 🙂

P.S. For a terrific and nutritious pizza sauce simply omit the coconut cream and passata (and don’t add the zucchini).