Pumpkin Sausage Pasta

Before Brad's college buddies visit town this weekend, and I'm off to the David Berkeley show at Zingerman's Roadhouse tomorrow, I thought I'd get in a quick fall dinner. The credit goes to Stephanie, as she alerted me to the idea for a recipe I found here. I made some modifications, but it certainly is delish. So tasty in fact, that even my pumpkin-hating husband really enjoyed it. Pair this pasta with blanched asparagus for a super tasty dinner.
First up, is cooking yourself up some sausage. I actually used the sage Jimmy Dean's one pound roll, mostly because I always have them on hand in my freezer. Crumble it up pretty good while cooking it, then set it to the side to cool a bit. In the same pan, start sauteeing up some yellow onion in a little butter.

Sauteed onions with sausage (plus pumpkin & cream)

Once that gets pretty translucent, add back the sausage, about 3/4 cup pureed pumpkin, a few turns of the pan of light cream mixed with milk, and a whole lot of shredded pecorino romano.

Sauce Ingredients

Sort of keep mixing this around until it's stirred throughout. It looks pretty much like chunky baby food, but I promise you, it's tasty. In the mean time, boil yourself up 1/2 lb of mini penne. Make sure to reserve the pasta water! Once the pasta is done, dump that into the sausage pan, along with some chopped parsley, and some ladles of pasta water. Stir to combine until the pasta is coated, but not too runny.

Mmmm, dinner makes mouths happy

As a quick accompaniment, blanch some asparagus in boiling water for about 4-5 minutes. While it's cooling, top it with some salt & pepper, and a little bit of leftover parmesean.

I could eat asapargus a few nights a week

Now that I've had my dinner, I can get excited about having Seth and Andrew in town for the weekend to visit all things alma matter. Go Blue!