A few weeks ago my friend Nancy and I went to a free cooking class at Williams-Sonoma. We like free. Part of the free class was a sales pitch, which we had to sit through before the the free food was served. We were shown $300 pans we couldn’t cook without, $500 blenders to blend and boil soup (I am not kidding), and a $12 bottle of Pumpkin-Parmesan Pasta Sauce that would change our lives. We like free; a $12 bottle of pasta sauce was out of the question…, but that boiling blender was sooooo tempting. I still dream about it. But I digress… After downing the free samples (and not being that impressed), I went home to Google Pumpkin-Parmesan Pasta Sauce Recipes. Five popped up. I compared them. Combined them. Made them. I fed the first batch to my grandson. He loved it (and he doesn’t love everything). My daughters had the leftovers and they said the words that make me swoon, “This is really good, Mom”. I love those girls. Feeling I was on the right track, I upped the spices a bit, and made another batch for my Dining For Women group. They liked it too! YAY! They asked me to post the recipe. I love those women. I hope you bought an extra can of Pumpkin Puree. You are going to want to use one to make this recipe at least once this season. It’s tasty, it’s different, it’s nutritious and it’s just the thing to be eating this time of year and, drum roll please, it’s FREE!
My only caution about this recipe: don’t make it ahead of time. Make it, and then serve it immediately. Right after combining the sauce with the pasta, it’s all nice and creamy, but it doesn’t take long for the two parts to congeal into a big blob. Other people didn’t seem to mind, but I did. Perhaps I need to add more liquid to keep it creamy longer?
I wanted to serve the sauce with cheese tortellini or cheese ravioli tonight, but I forgot to buy some, so I had to make do with what I had in the cupboard, Rotelle. I’ve also made this with with Penne and Bowties, too, and both were good. But I really wanted to try it on cheese ravioli 🙁 If you try it on ravioli, let me know how it is, please!
I serve this as a side dish. Recipe will serve 6-8. This sauce goes together quickly. Not as quickly as opening a $12 jar of sauce, but almost!
Pumpkin-Parmesan Pasta Sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 chopped shallot (about ¼ cup)
½ cup chopped onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 box pasta (penne, rotelle, bowtie)
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp. ground sage
½ tsp. nutmeg (freshly ground is best)
1 ½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
Fill a pasta pot with water, bring to boil, add salt.
While the pasta water is coming to a boil, heat the olive oil in a skillet and stir in onions and shallots. Saute until translucent. Stir in minced garlic and saute for another minute or so.
By this time, your water should be boiling. Stir in pasta, and cook according to package directions.
Add pumpkin, broth, cream, vinegar and spices to the onion/shallots/garlic mixture in the skillet. Simmer on low for 5 minutes or so.
Gradually stir in 1/3 of the cheese to the sauce. When that cheese has been incorporated, repeat with another 1/3 of the cheese. Then repeat again with remaining cheese. Stir in chopped fresh sage.
By this time, your pasta should be cooked. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water.
Stir the drained pasta into the sauce. If the sauce seems too thick, add a bit of the reserved pasta water until the sauce reaches desired consistency. Serve immediately. Enjoy! Happy Fall!
Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today. Raise your hand if you are a pumpkin junkie! (I am, I am!!)
