Before I started blogging, I used carrots mostly as supporting ingredients in stocks and stews, one of the few exceptions being hutspot sometimes in winter. Fellow bloggers have inspired me to give carrots a leading role as well. This is another primo piatto using carrots inspired by 35aweek.com with some adaptations. This one’s even easier to make than the carrot risotto. And if you prepare the carrots the night before like I did, it only takes as long to prepare this dish as it takes to boil the pasta.
Fusilli (similar to the rotelle used by K. on $35 a week) are a good pasta shape for this sauce, as it is quite smooth and therefore the coils of the fusilli are excellent for absorbing the sauce.
Ingredients
For 2 servings
450 grams (1 pound) carrots
150-200 grams (1/3 – 1/2 pound) fusilli
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1 shallot, minced
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley
1 glass (100 ml) dry white wine
Preparation
Preheat oven to 225C/425F. Peel the carrots and cut into chunks. Put in an oven dish and toss with olive oil, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
Cover tightly with foil and bake until the carrots are tender, about an hour.
If you do these steps the night before like I did, you can turn off the oven after 45 minutes and leave the carrots in the oven to cool overnight. The next day the carrots will be super tender.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add fusilli and salt and cook al dente according to package instructions.
Heat the butter in a frying pan and sauté the shallot until translucent.
Add white wine and stir until most of the wine has evaporated.
Puree the carrots with their juices in the food processor.
Add the carrots to the frying pan.
Stir over low heat until smooth and heated through.
Drain pasta and add to the carrots with freshly grated parmigiano and most of the parsley.
Toss to mix until all of the sauce has been absorbed by the fusilli.
Serve on warm plates, sprinkled with remaining parsley and more freshly grated parmigiano.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
Looks great. We do a lot of homemade pasta around here and I’m always looking for a new way to eat it. Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon…
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A lovely simple recipe Stefan. I am impressed. It would be a great one for before a long bike ride in the Dublin mountains. Plenty of carbs and very tasty too, I would imagine.
Best,
Conor
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Thanks, Conor. You could make it even more simple by leaving out the wine. I should visit Ireland some time, although I prefer my bike rides flat and not too long 😉
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Leave out the wine?
Don’t be daft.
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LOL!
Adding the wine was the main tweak I made to the recipe that was my inspiration for this.
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I love roasted carrots but I never would have thought to make them into a pasta sauce. I bet the kids will love it, too, both for the color and the sweetness. Since I am getting 5-lb. bags of carrots from my CSA, I will definitely have to try it out!
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Great! For even more sweetness, you could leave out the glass of wine and/or add a pinch of sugar or perhaps a drop of maple syrup?
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Oh, yes, maple syrup, yum. I’d love that. I mean my kids would. I mean we all would. 🙂
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You’re up late! Good night and sleep well…
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Thanks–have a nice day at work! 🙂
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Thanks, but I never work on Fridays. Just getting out of bed actually 😉
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Oh, you Europeans are so civilized. Enjoy!
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This looks wonderful! I love the look of the fresh parsley (my fave herb!) against all that glowy orange. Will definitely try this!
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Thanks! Would love to hear how it turns out.
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Will do!
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A creative and beautiful use of an often overlooked vegetable, the humble carrot. Your sauce looks velvety and flavorful. You continue to inspire. I am definitely making pasta tonight… 🙂
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