Baked Pumpkin & Pesto Penne

As we delve fully into fall, I love incorporating autumn flavors into my meals. Pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, the list goes on! There is something so comforting about bundling up in the house with a warm bowl of pasta rich in the flavors of the season.

This dish came about as I was looking for a way to use leftover canned pumpkin purée. As soon as fall hits I become crazy about pumpkin-flavored everything! Now pumpkin and pesto may seem like an odd pairing, but they actually complement one another very well. The pumpkin is slightly sweet, the pesto has a saltier kick, and the sausage and red pepper flakes add a little bit of heat creating a beautifully melded and savory dish--the ultimate comfort food.

Since we are using penne and this pasta finishes in the oven, this recipe isn't super labor intensive (yay)! You could easily use this with rigatoni, fettuccine, spaghetti, or even rotini pasta. Basically any pasta in your cabinet should work.

I began by tearing up my 8 oz mozzarella ball into small-ish pieces and then set it aside. They don't have to be uniform in size! (*Note: I wasn't obsessed with the mozzarella on top, and next time I make this I'm not going to add it, so you could definitely skip the mozz and you wouldn't be missing out!)

Next I added my shredded fontina, pesto, and ricotta to a bowl. If you can't find fontina, gruyére would also work great!

I mixed them together and set it aside.

Once the penne was finished cooking (~10-12 min for al dente), I drained it, put it in a bowl, and added the cheese and pesto mixture.

I mixed the two until thoroughly combined (this is an arm workout)!

In a large pan, I browned the sausage, then added the whole milk (could substitute with a non-dairy alternative or you could even use heavy cream), the pumpkin purée, oregano, red pepper flakes (just a pinch, but more if you like it spicy), salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper.

Once the sauce was mixed, I let it simmer for 15 minutes until it thickened.

I then split the sauce into 2 sections. 1/4 of the sauce (on the left) was for topping, and the other 3/4 of the sauce (right) was for the base.

I put the 3/4 section of sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan and spread it evenly.

From left to right: I then placed my pasta and pesto/cheese mixture in the pan and spread it out evenly. Then the remaining pumpkin sauce was put on top, followed by the last 1/4 cup of pesto. Lastly, I topped it with the torn mozzarella.

Here it is out of the oven! I let it cook for ~23 minutes until the top had browned and the mozzarella had completely melted. I do love the look of those pools of cheese.

After waiting about 5 minutes, I fixed a nice big helping of the pasta. It is creamy, slightly spicy, and so so good. This really is the ultimate fall comfort meal. I can't wait to make it again when the temperatures really drop!

Recipe Notes:

Make it vegetarian: Skip the sausage and keep the dish vegetarian. Just add a bit more red pepper flakes to bring some of the heat back!
Less spicy: Use mild Italian sausage instead of spicy. Also, eliminate red pepper flakes entirely or only use a small pinch.