Bright colour and fresh seasonal vegetables are the main ingredient of our recipes, easy to prepare and rich in health-beneficial properties. About a half pumpkin was left from our last preparation, so we decided to use this tasty ingredient as a delicious sauce to prevent any waste. Eating healthy dishes helps us not only to lift our mood making us feeling energized and happy but it is also the right choice before Christmas lunches and dinners. The secret to prepare a recipe both tasty and healthy is to find the right balance among flavours, ingredients and consistencies.

We chose our Fusilli Caserecci with 100% Italian durum wheat freshly ground, with their perfect shape to hold the pumpkin sauce and we added some celery because of its consistency, freshness and crispness. Finally, we added a pinch of chilli pepper considering that the sweet and delicate taste of the pumpkin goes well with spicy flavors.

Why do we always choose seasonal vegetables?

Consuming seasonal fruit and vegetables means first of all having fresh flavours in our dish.

Eating vegetables grown according to their natural rhythms is a unique experience for our palate. You should remember that seasonality excludes any kind of "help" (additives and preservatives) to grow vegetables and if you choose organic products, the benefits for your health will be assured! In fact, varying our diet eating seasonal food also means diversifying the supply of nutrients necessary for our daily needs, such as vitamins and minerals.

Before consuming seasonal fruit and vegetables we should always carefully choose local products, whose origin we know about. Only in this way we will guarantee for us and for our guests fresh, genuine and tasty dishes.

Celery: a perfect ingredient for dressings, but not only that!

Celery is a very common vegetable in our kitchen and it is very often used to dress or as a base for our sauces. In fact, this vegetable has got a lot of benefits thanks to its high content of vitamins and its diuretic effect.

There are three different variety of celery: celeriac, commonly used for its big roots; dulce celery, commonly used for its stems; tuberous celery, commonly used for its leaves with their intense aroma.

We chose the second variety for our recipe: dulce celery. Before cooking the celery stems, we suggest rinsing them well under running water to remove any possible trace of earth, then cut the ends and remove most of the strings using a knife, because otherwise you will have a bitter aftertaste not so pleasant to the palate.

For celery lovers we recommend four types of preparation: stir it in a pan to give freshness and crispness to your recipes (as we do in our preparation); serve it as an appetizer with your vinaigrette or choose it for your super-tasty smoothies.

We also love eating it as it is for our afternoon snack, the choice is yours!

Now, let’s start the preparation.

INGREDIENTS FOR 4 PEOPLE

360 gr. Antonio Amato Fusilli Caserecci

400 gr. Pumpkin

1 Celery Stalk

Antonio Amato Extra Virgin Olive Oil EVO to taste

Salt to taste

1 Garlic Clove

Chilli pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Let’s start this preparation with your pumpkin sauce: rinse and cut it into cubes, then stew it in a pot with water and a pinch of salt until is tender.

When ready, place it in a blender with a drizzle of Antonio Amato Extra Virgin Olive Oil EVO, half a ladle of cooking water, add salt and blend.

In the meanwhile, cook our Fusilli Caserecci in plenty of salted water.

Now let’s talk about the celery: cut it into small pieces and then stir it in a separate pan with a clove of garlic and a pinch of chilli pepper.

When plating, pour some pumpkin sauce at the bottom of your dish and add our Fusilli, previously stir fried with the rest of the sauce. Complete with stir fried celery and a drizzle of our Extra Virgin Olive Oil EVO.

Our first course with Autumn fragrances is ready, enjoy your dish!