Do you ever get tired of plain old red sauce? …Yeah, no, I don’t either. But if for some reason you did want to try something new, this quick and creamy pumpkin sauce is a great way to switch up your pasta routine. I had a partial can of pumpkin purée left over from another recipe this week, so I borrowed the flavors from this old recipe for simple pumpkin soup and turned it into a creamy, comforting sauce. It’s so easy and so good.
This recipe makes about four “side dish” sized servings of pasta with creamy pumpkin sauce, or two big main dish servings. I have no problem just eating pasta and sauce for dinner, but if you wanted to round it out a bit, a little browned Italian sausage would go so very well with these flavors. Got some fresh spinach on hand? Toss a couple handfuls into the sauce for some nice color and extra dose of vegetables.
I made my creamy pumpkin sauce with butter, chicken broth, and cream, but it could easily be made vegan by substituting the butter with coconut oil, the chicken broth with vegetable broth, and the cream with full-fat coconut milk. Pumpkin and coconut go very well together!
Pasta with Creamy Pumpkin Sauce
Servings 2Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp butter ($0.13)
- 1 cup pumpkin purée ($0.78)
- 1 cup chicken broth* ($0.12)
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp chili powder** ($0.03)
- Pinch cayenne pepper ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ( $0.05)
- 2 Tbsp half & half or cream ($0.19)
- 8 oz. pasta ($0.70)
Instructions
- Begin boiling a large pot of water for your pasta. Once the water is boiling, add the pasta and boil until al dente (7-10 minutes). Drain in a colander.
- While waiting for the water to boil, prepare the sauce. Mince two cloves of garlic and add them to a large skillet with one tablespoon of butter. Sauté over medium-low heat for 1-2 minutes, or just until the garlic is soft and fragrant.
- Add the pumpkin purée and chicken broth to the skillet and stir to combine. Add the nutmeg, chili powder, cayenne pepper, and some freshly cracked black pepper. Stir in the spices and let the sauce simmer over medium-low heat while the pasta cooks (about 10 minutes), stirring occasionally.
- Once the pasta is finished cooking and is draining in a colander, add the half and half or cream to the skillet and stir it into the pumpkin sauce. Taste the sauce and add salt if needed (this will depend on the type of broth you use). Finally, stir the drained pasta in to the sauce and serve.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Pasta with Creamy Pumpkin sauce – Step by Step Photos
Start by mincing two cloves of garlic and sautéing them with one tablespoon butter over medium-low heat in a large skillet. Sauté for only one to two minutes, just to soften the garlic up some and make it nice and fragrant.
Oh yes, and begin boiling the water for the pasta. The sauce will cook in the short amount of time that it takes the pasta to cook, so get that going first. Once the water boils, add 8oz. pasta, and cook till al dente. Drain it in a colander. Continue with the sauce as the pasta boils…
Next, add one cup pumpkin purée (about one cup, you can actually use a little less or a little more and it will still work fine) and one cup chicken broth to the skillet. Stir until those two are combined, then add 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp chili powder, a pinch of cayenne, and some freshly cracked black pepper. Stir the spices in, then let the sauce simmer over medium-low while the pasta cooks (about 10 minutes), stirring occasionally. The sauce will thicken slightly as it simmers and some of the moisture evaporates.
Finally, once the pasta has finished cooking and it’s in the colander draining, stir two tablespoons of half & half (or cream) into the pumpkin sauce. Taste the sauce and add salt if needed.
Add the cooked and drained pasta to the skillet and stir to coat it in the sauce. YUM.
Some days you just need pasta, you know?
I like to add a little “sprankle” of fresh pepper over each bowl, too.
OMG Beth!!! so, so tasty. Definitely I will make this again. Your recipes do not disappoint at all, every single one is a hit … I am so happy to see my husband and my 18 months old eating all their plate, and ask for more, specially my toddler, he is a very picky eater, and well my husband is very particular with his food.
I have to say that I added some sausages and kale to it, and I used cream cheese instead of half and half because I didn’t have any.
Thank you again.
Lots of love.
I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t get this recipe to work (and that’s first for this site!). The first time I used milk instead of half and half, and it tasted like I’d just poured pumpkin pie filling on pasta. Not creamy at all.
So I made it again a few weeks later and followed the recipe exactly….resulted in almost the exact same taste/texture. Maybe I didn’t get it hot enough?
Hmm, I don’t think heat would make that much of a difference in the creaminess. Are you using plain canned pumpkin or pumpkin pie filling? The cans look almost exactly the same, but the pumpkin pie filling is sweetened and seasoned.
I tried this a few weeks ago, because I love love pumpkin and pumpkin ravioli is one of my favorites, so I figured I’d love another pumpkin pasta. It was very good. Will definitely be something I make again. Interestingly, it is one of those pastas that does well cold and hot, and reheats well in the microwave!
I did not use the chili powder or cayenne pepper because I can’t take even mildly hot-spicy foods. Next time I will add the chili powder, though. Without, it’s still good, but it does miss a little edge.
Why don’t you have a cost for the pumpkin puree? A 15 oz can costs at least $3 at my grocery store.
Wow! I guess I forgot to type it in and no one has mentioned it until you just did! Ha! Thanks for catching that… I’ll have to go check my notebook (I do all the calculations on paper first).
This was delicious! I had made a similar recipe from another blogger and found it to be very flat. However, I gave pumpkin pasta a second chance once I saw your recipe and am very glad I did. Thanks for sharing!
Just made this tonight! Started with butternut & pureed, added a bit of bacon, an onion (we add onion to everything), and leftover rotisserie chicken. So good.
Hey Beth, what type of pasta did you use so I can copy exact your recipe, thanks :)
Looks like Orecchiette
https://www.google.ca/search?q=orecchiette
Great recipe! I have substituted butternut squash puree for the pumpkin, which works well! Also have added parmesan cheese and peas. Nice side with Italian Sausages.
I made this the other night and…yeah…it was incredible. I did have to add more salt because my broth was a bit salt-less.
One recommendation: have some parm cheese on hand. I found it was the perfect addition. And the whole thing goes beautifully with a cesar salad :)
I just tried this last night using one 15-oz can of pumpkin puree and one 14.5-oz can of chicken broth. Unfortunately it turned out pretty watery, even after simmering. I also tried adding some corn startch but eventually I gave up and just ate it. I added Italian sausage and spinach, which I recommend, but the pumpkin flavor felt a bit lost. I had to add a lot of extra seasoning. Next time I’ll add the pumpkin first and go slow on the broth.
Thank you so much for this recipe! Every since I developed an intolerance to tomatoes Ive been on the lookout for pasta sauces that arent just white sauces or pesto. This sounds great, I cant wait to try it!
I really liked this, and it’s so easy to make. My caveman husband does not feel that a meal is complete without meat, so I chopped and fried a little bit of slab bacon to put in there and it complemented the flavours nicely. Thanks for adding yet another recipe to our rotation!
I had no idea how incredibly delicious this would be. I doubled the amount of butter and garlic by mistake, but no harm done! Thanks for another great recipe.
Just made this with veggie broth!
WAS DELICIOUS.
I made this, with big hopes that it would be awesome. And I”m sure it is, I’ll have to make it again as directed.
I thought that adding coconut milk would be a good idea, however I subbed the whole can for the chicken stock instead of just the cream. Instead of noodles, I used rice, and used all the same spices.
Overall, it’s okay. Just… Don’t substitute a whole can of coconut milk for broth. For anyone else who might be deciding to do so. It’s sort’ve bland and I’m not sure what to do with this dish even after upping some more of the spices.
I’m willing for suggestions!
A lot of the flavor comes from the chicken broth, so by substituting that you unfortunately missed a lot of flavor. :)