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Baked Pumpkin Penne


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Description

A perfect pasta dish for fall


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 15 ounce can pumpkin (or if you are really ambitious ~1.52 cups fresh puree)
  • 2 cups milk of your choice (I used unsweetened soy milk)
  • 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 7 roasted garlic cloves (directions for roasting in the recipe)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • generous amount of freshly ground black pepper
  • pinch cayenne
  • pinch nutmeg
  • 4 leeks
  • 3 shallots
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • 45 slices whole grain bread (I used sprouted whole grain from our local bakery-delicious!)
  • 1 handful fresh sage (I found some locally grown organic sage at our grocery store :-))
  • 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 2 (12 ounce) boxes whole wheat pasta

Instructions

  1. First, you’ll want to roast your garlic.  This can be done ahead of time.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Take an entire bulb and cut the top off, like this:
  2. Drizzle some olive oil over the top and rub it in to ensure the top of every clove is covered.  Loosely cover with foil.
  3. Put it in the oven like this (no pan needed) and let it roast for 30 minutes.  The roasted cloves will slip right out of their skin with a little squeeze.  You can save the extra cloves for another recipe.  I’ll be using mine to make a half-recipe of this roasted garlic bean dip.
  4. Prepare your pasta according to the package directions.  Rinse with cold water and set aside.
  5. Wash the leeks and cut off the tops that look like silly hair. Thinly slice the white part and a little of the light green portion.  Peel and thinly slice the shallots.  In a large skillet, heat ~1-2 tablespoons olive oil over medium low heat.  Add the leeks and shallots and cook, stirring them around occasionally, until they are brown and caramelized, about 20 minutes.  I sprinkled them with a little sea salt half way through their cooking time.
  6. They will start out looking like this:
  7. And will turn into this:
  8. While the leeks are cooking, prepare the breadcrumbs and pumpkin sauce.
  9. For the breadcrumbs, tear the bread and sage leaves into pieces and put into the food processor.  This is how much sage I used:
  10. I could have probably used a little more.  Add the paprika to the food processor and pulse until your have coarse crumbs.
  11. Melt 2 tablespoons organic butter (or other fat of your choice) in a small skillet pan. Add the breadcrumbs and stir them to coat.  Allow them to toast for a few minutes and then remove from the heat.
  12. For the pumpkin sauce, add your pumpkin puree, milk, cheese, roasted garlic cloves, cayenne, nutmeg, salt, and pepper to a blender or food processor (I used the blender because I wanted a smoother texture).  Blend until smooth.
  13. To assemble the dish, mix the pasta with the sauce and place it in a large rectangular ceramic or glass casserole dish.  Top with a layer of the leek/shallot mixture and finally the breadcrumbs.  Sprinkle with a little more parmesan cheese, if desired.  Cook in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  I covered the dish with foil for the first 20 minutes and then uncovered it for the remaining 10 minutes.
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 80 minutes
  • Category: main meal
  • Cuisine: American / Italian

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 serving
  • Calories: 631
  • Sugar: 13.6g
  • Sodium: 755mg
  • Fat: 13.2g
  • Carbohydrates: 112g
  • Protein: 29.8g