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. 
Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy these. It had all my favourite flavours, so I thought they would be delicious but I had a feeling whilst making they were going to be too sweet, and they were.
Also the base definitely needs increasing as half the mix barely covers the bottom of the tin and with two wet elements it needs to be sturdier. Whilst the side pieces all stayed together the middle ones were just a gooey mess.
But still didn’t detract from the biggest issue – far too sweet. (And I have plenty a sweet tooth!)
Lovely blog though! (Sorry, hate leaving negative feedback! I just wouldn’t want someone else to have the same issues. Also, tinned pumpkin is quite pricey in the UK so wouldn’t want others to waste money on a recipe that doesn’t work)
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:02 am
Sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out for you… Thanks for the feedback.
I’m going to try these. I think Brits don’t generally eat things as sweet as we do and I read the recipe and it doesn’t seem as if it has too much sugar, but I am going to double the crust recipe because it does seem as if it is a bit scant, plus I’m going to make a double batch. Tell me, do these have to be stored in the fridge? I see the note to put in fridge to set. Are they too soft at room temp? If so, do you think not adding the milk to the dulce de leche would take care of that? I’m bringing them to an event and there will be no refrigeration available.