Pumpkin and Sausage Pasta

It’s fall y’all and I’m satisfying my craving for all things pumpkin with this pumpkin pasta sauce. Nothing beats the taste of homemade roasted pumpkin so if you can take the time to roast your own at home do it! Take my advice and don’t swap out for the canned pumpkin purée.

Pumpkin and Sausage Orecchiette

3.5 lb pie pumpkin

2 cloves garlic

Extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp Kosher salt, plus more for roasting pumpkin

1 lb pork breakfast sausage

1 piece whole nutmeg

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup chicken stock

Grated Parmesan (optional)

Preheat oven to 400. Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. Slice each half into 1/2” thick slices. Place on two baking sheets along with garlic cloves and toss with olive oil and salt. Roast for 45 minutes.

In a large pan sauté sausage until fully cooked, breaking it up as you go. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

When the pumpkin is finished roasting, remove the skin and add the pulp to a blender along with 1 tsp Kosher salt, the heavy cream, chicken stock and a few grates of nutmeg. Blend until smooth.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt liberally. Cook orecchiette according to package directions. Drain the pasta reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Place the drained pasta in a large pan. Add 1 1/2 cups of puréed pumpkin mixture and the sausage to the pan. Add 1/2 cup of pasta water to the pan and stir to combine, adding more pasta water as needed to reach desired consistency.

Serve with grated Parmesan if desired.

*you’ll have about 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin sauce leftover. I like to freeze this and keep on hand to make a second batch of pumpkin pasta in a fraction of the time