Pasta al Sugo di Zucca

First, the pasta: Mix the flour, puree, salt, and olive oil together until homogenous.

Now, teaspoon by teaspoon, add the water, mixing after each teaspoon, until it starts to bind into a firm, dry dough. A wet and sticky dough is your enemy. Don't make your pasta dough your enemy; mix only as much water as you need. It's just shy of a half cup, probably. Really mix the dough aggressively to get the gluten and elasticity going.

Now, you could roll your dough out by hand with a rolling pin until really thin, and then slice into fettucine. However, I recommend using a pasta machine, rolling to 7, and then using the fettucine attachment. Either way, hang it out to dry a bit. I like using a laundry rack.

So, the sauce... heat the olive oil on low in a 3 quart saucepan, and then toss in the onions.

Let the onions get a head start for a few minutes, and then add the garlic, pepper flakes, salt, and basil.

When the onions have completely given up the ghost and are translucent, and not a moment sooner or later, add the puree and mix.

Turn the heat to medium, and let's start loosening the sauce up. Add the milk, mix, and then add the water.

Set a large vat on the stovetop and boil enough water to cook 5 cups worth of noodles.

Simmer the sauce for about 10 or so minutes, and incorporate the cheese.

Add salt to taste, simmer for another little while on low while you cook the pasta and until you are sure there isn't a single bit of unsoftened rind specks in your sauce (disregard that bit about rind specks if you bought your puree).

Toss your noodles into the vat of boiling water and cook until softened, likely just a few minutes. Think more like you are poaching an egg than boiling a potato in terms of timing for the noodles.

Drain the noodles in a colander and run under cool water to stop the cooking process. Set the colander of noodles in a bath of warm water. In this way, you can take the colander out to scoop the drained noodles without worrying about cold or stuck together noodles.

So, to serve, put some pasta on a plate, and then ladle some sauce in the middle. Enjoy.