Pumpkin Penne Pasta

Not much I love more than being able to multi-purpose a meal, bonus points if it feeds an army and freezes well. Super bonus points if its local, affordable and nutrient dense.

This Pumpkin Penne Pasta checks ALL of those boxes. It’s a riff on my Butternut Squash Soup but I’ve bumped up the fall flavor by seasoning the pumpkin with pumpkin pie spice and sage before roasting. Roasting the squash makes it a pretty low maintenance dish, but it makes this dish something that warms your home and your belly…but the biggest perk of roasting the pumpkin before pureeing it is that it concentrates the slightly sweet and earthy pumpkin flavor and makes more room in the finished product for super nourishing broth. Want to eat it as a soup? Simply add broth to your desired slurping consistency! It can be frozen as a concentrate and revived with hot broth, now that’s what I call time and space saving!

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Ingredients

1 medium pumpkin or two small, seeded and cut in to quarters

1 Tbsp Olive Oil or Olive Oil Spray

1 1/2 tsp salt, divided

1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (A Pinch of Idaho)

2 tbsp rubbed sage

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 lb Hipwell Ranch sausage *optional

1 lb penne pasta cooked according to package directions

1/2 cup shredded cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350f

2. Place the pumpkin flesh side up on a baking sheet, brush or spray with olive oil, then season with 1 tsp salt, pepper, sage and pumpkin pie spice.

3. Bake, uncovered for approximately 30 minutes. Pierce with a knife to test doneness. Pumpkin should be tender and pull away from the skin easily. Set aside to cool until it can be handled.

4. While the pumpkin is roasting, cook and crumble the sausage.

5. Prepare the pasta according to package directions.

6. Remove the sausage from the pan and add the sliced onions, cook over low heat with a 1/2 tsp of salt until it becomes translucent and starts to caramelize and get jammy.

7. Remove the pumpkin from the skin, into jar of blender or vessel for using an immersion blender. Add chicken broth, about half a cup at a time until desired consistency.

8. Combine sauce with pasta and half the sausage. Garnish with caramelized onions and additional sausage if desired and gorgonzola crumbles. Wanna make pumpkin mac and cheese, add 1/2 cup of shredded cheese when combining the pasta, sauce and sausage, stir over medium-low heat until melted.