Penne With Pumpkin Sauce

Name: Penne With Pumpkin Sauce
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 2 serving(s)
Ingredients: 1/2 medium onion, chopped fine; 1/2 medium red bell pepper, chopped fine; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 2 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1/2 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (I would use a little more, but this is the amount the recipe calls for...); 1 cup chicken broth; 1/2 cup water; 2 tablespoons heavy cream; freshly grated nutmeg, to taste; 1/2 lb penne pasta; 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves; parmesan cheese, freshly grated,as an accompaniment

Community Pick

Submitted by Pianolady

"I had an abundance of pumpkins that I grew last year, so I tried this recipe from Gourmet Magazine and it was fantastic. The recipe calls for solid packed pumpkin, so feel free to use that if you don't have fresh pumpkin available. This recipe is scaled to serve 2, so adjust according to your needs. I hope you enjoy it!"

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photo by mikey ev

Ready In:: 45mins
Ingredients:: 12
Serves:: 2

ingredients

¹⁄₂ medium onion, chopped fine
¹⁄₂ medium red bell pepper, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¹⁄₂ cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (I would use a little more, but this is the amount the recipe calls for...)
1 cup chicken broth
¹⁄₂ cup water
2 tablespoons heavy cream
freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
¹⁄₂ lb penne pasta
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
parmesan cheese, freshly grated,as an accompaniment

directions

In a large skillet cook the onion, bell pepper and garlic in the butter over moderate heat, stirring, until the vegetables are softened.
Stir in the pumpkin, broth, water, cream, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
While the sauce is simmering, in a kettle of boiling salted water, boil the penne until it is al dente.
Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water and drain penne well.
Add the penne to the sauce and cook the mixture over moderate heat, stirring and thinning with reserved water if needed, for 1 to 20 minutes or until pasta is well coated.
Stir parsley into pasta and serve with parmesan cheese, as desired.
Enjoy!

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Reviews

I also made this recipe because I grew pumpkin (well, actually winter squash) this year and had a bumper crop. The pumpkin puree thickened up the sauce quite nicely, but as written it turned out pretty bland (for my tastes) and needed some doctoring up. I added a lot of salt and pepper and parmesan cheese. It could also be improved with some herbs or red pepper flakes or even Italian sausage. Thanks for the idea to use pumpkin in a pasta sauce.

Neohippie
I followed this so loosely I'm not sure I should put stars down. I glanced at a bunch of similar recipes, then just worked with what I had, using sight measurements mostly. This is really good! I used frozen chopped onion, no pepper, 1 garlic, bacon grease instead of butter for saute, buttercup squash instead of pumpkin, milk and less broth, and no parmesan for serving. Also, another recipe suggested a tsp of peanut butter, which was great. The funniest thing was when I asked my kids to guess the secret ingredient, and my 4 yr old said, "Cheese!" I think that's what made it look appealing to the kids, the color of Velveeta, lol.

annlouise
My husband thought I was crazy when I said we were having pasta with pumpkin sauce for dinner, but this turned out so tasty that he actually requests it! I've found that the onion and bell pepper aren't really necessary to a great-tasting sauce, so I usually leave it out. Otherwise, a perfect recipe!

Cookery Enthusiast
This was quite nice...I did end up doctoring it slightly to better suit the tastes of those eating it and also to use what was on hand...I added about twice the amount of onion and red pepper...added green peas and serrano pepper (gave a nice kick and bright color) used the suggested extra pumpkin (about a cup???-maybe???)- (spiced that with cayenne and cinnamon)...no water-all spicy veggie broth instead and threw some parm. ch. into the sauce as it simmered instead of using it as a garnish.......had no parsley (well really it turn a bit limp and yellow :( ) - so used cilantro & served it with whole wheat rottini and roasted butternut squash.....YUMMY!!! :) Have to add that the leftovers were even better...after the flavors had mingled together for a time - Thanks for a nice and different recipe will definitely try again!!!

free-free
As written, this recipe was definitely too bland for me, but with a few changes, it turned out wonderful. I am not rating this, since I changed it up quite a bit, but after the changes I made, I would definitely give this 5 stars. I would recommend it to anyone as a great starting point. Just add to it, until you get the flavor that you want. I did end up doubling the recipe. I followed the recommendations of other reviewers and subbed olive oil for the butter, and evaporated milk for the cream AND water. I added a very generous amount of grated parmesan cheese (not freshly grated, though) to the sauce and mixed it all together. I added a good amount of freshly ground black pepper, but still found the end result to be missing something. I then stirred in a few splashes of cayenne pepper sauce, which finally did the trick. I didn't add enough to make it very spicy, just a few dashes for flavor. Oh, and I think I added a dash or two of paprika while I was making the sauce. I would definitely make this again, spicing it up as needed.

Heavens Kitchen

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Tweaks

I followed this so loosely I'm not sure I should put stars down. I glanced at a bunch of similar recipes, then just worked with what I had, using sight measurements mostly. This is really good! I used frozen chopped onion, no pepper, 1 garlic, bacon grease instead of butter for saute, buttercup squash instead of pumpkin, milk and less broth, and no parmesan for serving. Also, another recipe suggested a tsp of peanut butter, which was great. The funniest thing was when I asked my kids to guess the secret ingredient, and my 4 yr old said, "Cheese!" I think that's what made it look appealing to the kids, the color of Velveeta, lol.

annlouise
Very good! My husband ate this up with no complaint and that was rather surprising given pumpkin is involved. I made this with vegetable broth and milk instead of cream - otherwise as written.

Mgnbos
This recipe is delicious! I've made it a couple of times a couple of different ways. One time I used green pepper instead of red, juice leftover from straining fresh pumpkin in place of the water and broth, coconut milk instead of heavy cream, and cilantro instead of parsley, and it was still amazing! It seems like a very flexible recipe, I'll definitely be making it again.

Fulltime Chef
My roommates thought I was crazy for doing a pumpkin sauce, but it turned out awesome. I used cream cheese instead of heavy cream and omitted the bell pepper, parsley leaves, and parmesan cheese. A good dinner for the autumn weather.

carlamoose
This was very good and felt very light too. I used freshly pureed pumpkin and instead of heavy cream I used milk, which still came out fine I thought. Thanks!

hippeastrum