Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 – 1 sweet onion, diced
2-4 cloves garlic (depending on how much you like garlic!), minced
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
1 lb ground beef*
800mL pure pumpkin purée
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp raw cane sugar, honey, or sweetener of choice
2 cups water
salt & pepper

Method

1. Heat a pot or large pan with a fitting lid over medium to medium-high heat.
2. Add olive oil and diced onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent or just starting to pick up a golden colour.
3. Stir in minced garlic, oregano, and basil. Allow to cook until garlic starts picking up a golden brown colour.
4. Add in ground beef (or preferred substitute) and break it up to get as much surface area on the bottom of the pot/pan as possible. Allow it to brown a bit before stirring and breaking it up further – this adds a lot of umami flavour that would have otherwise been added in from tomato paste. Season with ~1 tsp each of salt and pepper.
5. Cook the beef until it just loses its pink colour. Add in pumpkin purée, balsamic vinegar, sweetener of choice, and water. Stir to combine, place on the lid, and cook for 10 minutes. The lid is important here to keep yourself and your stovetop clean as the sauce will begin to bubble .
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over favourite pasta or use in a pasta bake.

Notes:

1. *I prefer to use grass-fed beef as this is the easiest for me to digest. Use whatever mince you prefer, such as lean ground turkey, a mix of mince, or vegan mince. If making this dish vegan, I also recommend to not use honey as the sweetener as not all vegans consume honey.
2. This recipe has all of the components that make up a basic marinara meat sauce, with a few add-ins to bring in the sweet, acidic, umami flavours that tomatoes typically lend, into the otherwise flavourless pumpkin purée.
3. If you are cooking this sauce at the same time as your pasta, I’ve found that these typically time perfectly together. If you are slower at dicing/mincing when prepping your ingredients, I recommend doing that before getting started. Then, just start a pot of salted water to boil at the same time that you heat up your pot for the sauce. I find that the water is typically boiling at the same time the sauce is ready to sit and cook with the lid on. Then I just add in my pasta and set the timer to cook (usually around the 10 minutes for dried pasta), and the sauce is ready when the pasta is ready to be strained.
4. If you like adding red wine to your pasta sauces, I recommend adding it in after the meat is almost cooked through and before the pumpkin purée is added. However much you add can be substituted for the amount of total water you use (i.e. if you use 1 cup of red wine, you will only need to add 1 cup of water later on).
5. I like to use the basil and oregano that I grow on my balcony in the summer and dry for storage, however these dried herbs are just as delicious and easy to find at grocery stores, Costco, and bulk food stores in the herbs and spices section. If using fresh herbs, you may need more as they are less potent than dried herbs – just dice them or cut them finely with kitchen shears.
6. Leftovers are good in the fridge up to 3 days, or frozen for several months.
7. I love to serve this with a gluten-free baguette (from the brand Udi’s) to pick up all of the remaining sauce on my plate. This also times perfectly, toasting in the oven while the pasta and sauce cook.