Getting Vitamin A

 Nathanael and I are in the midst of planting our garden. Yesterday we spent the afternoon cleaning out our garden plot, and marking new rows in the sun and warm breezes. The space is pretty large, but I am still impressed by how many things we are planning to grow. The seeds that will go directly into the ground (which is most of them) have not been started yet, but 44 pots of more fragile seedlings are beginning to sprout on our windowsill. Some of the more unique things we will be growing this year include purple carrots and yellow carrots. Last year Nathanael grew three varieties of orange carrots and I have just finished the last batch of them from the freezer using this recipe.

Now, I know a lot of you probably don’t consider yourselves adventurous with your pasta, but I would dare to say that if you like white sauce you will find this a perfect place to work a little more orange onto your plate, and perhaps even into your regular list of recipes. The sauce is very mild depending on how much spice you add and the variety of carrots you use; grocery store carrots will result in the mildest. I recently served this sauce to some of my pickiest relatives and they all found it enjoyable, and even had seconds.

Creamy carrot pasta sauce

1lb carrots (the whole recipe is approximate, so just estimate)

Salt

4oz whole milk or cream

4oz fresh grated parmesan

freshly ground black pepper

a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg

1 Tbs butter

1 lb pasta of your choice

 Boil the carrots in salted water until they are soft, then puree them using a food processor, blender, or a ricer.

 Return to medium sauce pan and stir in milk, cheese, spices and salt, while heating gently. 

(If possible, grate fresh Parmesan and whole nutmeg instead of using a pre-powdered variety of either. )

Stir sauce and season to taste, adding more milk if you like a thinner sauce.  

Boil pasta in salted water according to directions, drain and toss with butter, serve with carrot sauce.

My recipe is adapted from the cookbook, More Great Italian Pasta by Diane Seed. If your library has this cookbook I recommend checking it out, there are a lot of creative sauces that would never have occurred to me, using a wide variety of vegetables and other ingredients. It also has superb watercolor illustrations which might inspire you in areas beyond just cooking.

*Edit: New photos added to provoke your appetite for this delicious and nutritious dish, March 28, 2011