Cara’s Pumpkin Pasta
It seems like every blogger out there has made this recipe. It was only time until I made it myself. What better time to than A Week of Pumpkin to make Cara’s famous Pumpkin Pasta. If you don’t know about Cara’s blog, be sure to check it out. She’s definitely a pumpkin princess. She puts pumpkin in things that I would never think to put pumpkin in.
I know most people have made this with penne, but I got bowtie pasta because I love bowtie pasta. Hubby and I rarely have pasta in the house. We just don’t eat it that much. I don’t think the shape of the pasta had a negative impact on the dish at all.
I doubled Cara’s recipe so that I could freeze some of it for Hubby and I to take in our lunches next week. With my doubled recipe I got 6 servings. Four of which went straight into the freezer. I would never think that I would enjoy pumpkin pasta, but I tell you what, this stuff is delicious. I love the colors of the pumpkin and spinach together on the plate. Goat cheese went really well with this dish as well.
Creamy Pumpkin Pasta
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients:
8 oz bowtie pasta
2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
~2 tsp sage
4 links cooked chicken sausage, sliced
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
1 can pumpkin puree
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
10 oz torn spinach, thick stems removed
crumbled goat cheese, optional
Directions:
Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook for about 10-minutes, until softened. Add garlic, sage, and chicken sausage.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.
In a blender, combine combine pumpkin and cottage cheese. Blend until no lumps are present. Add to sausage mixture in skillet and continue to cook over low heat. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.
Drain pasta and return to pot over low heat. Add sausage mixture and baby spinach, and toss together. Cover for a few minutes to let the spinach wilt. Serve with goat cheese, if desired.
Recipe adapted from Cara's Cravings
And don’t forget about my Power of Pink Challenge going on all month.
Check out my week of pumpkin here.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
This is the perfect recipe for all of the leftover ingredients I have! Hubby made me buy a 3-pound bag of cranberries because he loves them, but you only use 12 ounces for cranberry sauce so I’ve got about 2 pounds of cranberries left to use, plus lots of pumpkins and pecans. This is definitely being made this weekend!
Oh man. That does sound good. And I know it must be if you’re repeating it because I am the same way. I’m going to make a cranberry maple pecan cake on Friday… but this is really tempting too.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Oh, man! If I only had more time for Thanksgiving dessert table – this is certainly one I would try.
Oooh this cake looks so ooey gooey and delicious! I wish there weren’t already so many desserts coming to my Thanksgiving table because I’d totally make this!
Sues
This looks super delicious and your photos look great too! Happy Thanksgiving to you and hubby!
ooooh, my, i must try this 🙂 happy thanksgiving!!
What a fabulous recipe! All the flavors sound delicious to me.
This looks amazing! It looks so moisty yum, I should try to make this sometime, Love your blog! this is my first comment for you so I thought I’d show some appreciation for your blog, because I’ve been drooling over all your recipes for a while
Shandra-http://shandrita.tumblr.com/
Your photos are beautiful! The pictures I took of the actual cake didn’t look to appealing, the photos I took of the bite sized cake bites looked pretty though lol
Good job!!
What a great recipe! You totally had me at caramel/pecan/cranberry topping.
Just finally made this cake and it is astoundingly good! Truly the best dessert I’ve had in…oh, a very long time. Thank you for your post!
I tried to be good, I really did! This cake was so delicious, I not only had seconds, I had a piece for breakfast the next day and for a snack later that day. This one goes on my Christmas menu!
beantownbaker — December 1st, 2013 @ 6:52 pm
I doubled the recipe this time and you’ll remember the middle didn’t quite bake through. It also spilled over a bit, so next time, I’ll put a pan under the cake in the oven.