A Little Pumpkin Pasta Dish

Pumpkin-Bacon Pasta

I've been dreaming of this for like a week. I took a recipe from Martha Stewart and changed it up. Don't get me wrong, I worship at the church of Martha, but most of her recipes tend to need a little tweaking. The bacon was my idea, and what a good idea it was. I took some notes from her user comments, some of her users are pretty bitchy, housewives can be brutal. Anywho, this dish was great and ever so cheap, but when I say use salt, I couldn't be more serious. Pumpkin is really dense so it takes a lot of salt to season it. 

You will need the following: 

1 box of penne pasta

1 tbsp coarsely chopped sage

1.5 c pumpkin puree

1 clove garlic (minced)

1/2 c half n half

4-5 slices of thick bacon

1/4 tsp pie spice

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

SALT & pepper

1.) Boil pasta, save one cup pasta water. Drain and set aside. 

2.) In empty pasta pot, fry bacon until mostly done. Then add in sage and fry 1-2 minutes. 

3.) Mix pumpkin puree and pie spice. Toss pumpkin into pot and heat lightly. 

4.) Add pasta water and garlic. Continue to lightly heat. 

5.) Pour in half-n-half. Stir and heat only until sauce is warm. Season with pepper flakes and salt. 

6.) Once sauce is mixed and warm, remove from heat and mix in pasta. Toss thoroughly and serve. 

Great for a group!