Sage and Pumpkin Pesto

Pumpkins aren’t just for Halloween, they’re for pesto too! Get the recipe for my Sage and Pumpkin Pesto below.

#PumpkinRescue

I had never really given much thought to pumpkin waste until I stumbled across the #PumpkinRescue campaign last year. Did you know that over 18,000 tonnes of EDIBLE pumpkin ends up in the bin each year. That’s the same weight as 1,500 double-decker busses! Mad isn’t it?

I don’t want to sound like your mother here but when there are starving people in the world and with people across England relying on food banks more than ever, I just can’t justify throwing my pumpkin away after Halloween.

Last year I used mine to make a cheesey pumpkin dip, but pumpkin soup is also delicious and you can use it in curry too! Just think of the pumpkin as you would a butternut squash and use it in the same way.

Today I’m sharing a recipe for Sage and Pumpkin Pesto. It’s absolutely delicious stirred through fresh pasta.

More pumpkin inspiration

Perfect sage and pumpkin pesto

I wanted to share a recipe that not only uses up the flesh of the pumpkin but also the seeds! If we can use the whole squash then why not?!

Best of all, you can easily scale this recipe up based on the size of your pumpkin. You’ll get a huge amount of pesto which can easily be frozen to preserve it.

I like to freeze it in ice cube trays, and then store frozen pesto cubes in plastic freezer bag. I can then pull out a couple at a time when ever I’m in the mood for pasta. The frozen pesto will keep in the freezer for up to 6 months.

With simple ideas like this one we can make big steps towards reducing the amount of food we waste.

The recipe

As I’ve mentioned above these are small measurements which hopefully you can easily scale up based on how much pumpkin you have to hand.

Print

Sage and Pumpkin Pesto

This Sage and Pumpkin Pesto is a sunny twist on a classic. Stir through your favourite pasta.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Calories 275 kcal

Author Emma Walton

Ingredients

• 200 grams pumpkin or other squash, cubed
• 25 grams pumpkin seeds
• 3 sage leaves
• 1 garlic clove
• 100 millilitres olive oil
• 25 grams parmesan grated
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Roast the cubes of pumpkin in the oven for 45mins - 1 hour until soft.
2. Toast the pumpkin seeds until they start to colour and pop.
3. Add the pumpkin flesh and seeds into the food processors along with the sage and garlic.
4. Blitz on high until finely chopped.
5. Slowly add in the olive oil and continue to blitz
6. Finally, add in the parmesan, nutmeg and seasoning then pulse to combine.

Recipe Notes

Storing

This can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days or frozen for up to 6 months.

More pesto inspiration!

If you’ve liked this, then why not try some of these other pesto recipes.