Creamy Pumpkin Pasta Sauce

The best creamy pumpkin pasta sauce with parmesan and parsley, one of the best pumpkin pasta recipes ever!

You will not believe how good this pumpkin pasta sauce is! Creamy, luscious and quite healthy on top of everything.

This is my first pumpkin recipe this season but if you have been searching for other pumpkin recipes here, you might have noticed that I am slightly obsessed with pumpkin. For me almost every recipe I have ever cooked with pumpkin was either “amazing” or “the best ever” or “unbelievable” and so on.

I just love pumpkin!!!!

Pumpkin Sauce for Pasta or Gnocchi

• I have to say I only cook two sorts of pumpkin: Hokkaido pumpkin also know as red kuri squash and butternut squash. I have tried 2 or 3 other sorts over the years, but none of them was ever so tasty as the above mentioned. So I let it be and only buy these two, they are the easiest ones to find anyway.
• A spaghetti squash might be on the list from time to time as well, but really not too often.
• We had the pumpkin pasta sauce for the first time with homemade giant gnocchi. However, ever since, I have cooked this sauce mostly for spaghetti or another kind of pasta shape.
• You can make your own gnocchi if you wish, buy ready-made ones or just cook some pasta. The Hokkaido or butternut squash pasta sauce will be delicious no matter what you eat it with.

Ingredients

I tweaked the original recipe quite a lot, it was full of cheese and crème double and butter. Not that I don’t like that, but I really don’t need the extra calories. The way I make it now is perfect for me, I cannot imagine this tasting any better.

Pumpkin:

• Hokkaido pumpkin or butternut squash.
• You will need a rather small Hokkaido or butternut squash, or rather just about the half of a regular sized pumpkin or squash. I can rarely find such a small pumpkin or squash, so I buy one and plan to make two pumpkin recipes in a 2 or 3 days.

Spices:

• The first time I have cooked this recipe I used saffron threads. I liked that, but saffron is expensive and I have to admit that saffron is the one spice I don’t always have in the house.
• So, I kind of leave it out nowadays and replace it with a bit of turmeric which helps intensify the wonderful bright color of the pumpkin sauce.

Dairy:

• I use evaporated milk with 4% or 7,5 % fat content instead of cream.
• The sauce is perfect just like that, so I don’t see the point in using the heavy/double cream, which has a much higher fat content.

Orange:

• I use some freshly squeezed orange juice for the sauce.
• If you don’t happen to have oranges, you could use mandarin or clementine juice instead or leave the juice completely out of this pumpkin pasta sauce. The orange juice gives the sauce a deliciously fruity, fresh touch, but you will still like it without it.

How to make it?

• Wash the pumpkin. If using Hokkaido pumpkin you will not have to peel it. If you use butternut squash, do peel that. Remove the seeds.
• Weigh the 500/ 1.1 lbs. Cube the pumpkin into small cubes.
• Use the rest of the pumpkin or squash for making other dishes, for instance pumpkin soup, pumpkin lasagna or pumpkin fritters.

• Chop the onion, garlic and parsley. Cook the onion, garlic, pumpkin in the butter and oil mixture until slightly softened and having a glazed look. Add the turmeric and stir well for about 30 seconds.
• Add the vegetable stock, evaporated milk and half of the parsley. Cook everything uncovered until the pumpkin is soft and the sauce has thickened.
• In the meantime you can start cooking the pasta.
• Puree the sauce with a hand-held blender or in the food processor. Add the orange juice, adjust the taste with salt and pepper and stir well.
• If the sauce is too thick add 2 or 3 tablespoons evaporated milk to thin the sauce just a little. If you don’t have anymore evaporated milk, regular milk will be fine.

• Stir in the Parmesan and the remaining chopped parsley and serve immediately with gnocchi, spaghetti or other kind of pasta.
• The sauce (without the pasta) can be easily reheated. While reheating add a bit more milk and stir very often.

MORE PUMPKIN IDEAS?

How to Roast a Pumpkin
Roast Pumpkin Salad
Pumpkin Cheesecake – No Bake
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
Harry Potter’s Pumpkin Pasties

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