First day of Autumn 2010!

Yesterday, September 23rd, was the official first day of Autumn. Autumn and Winter are my two favorite seasons, so when they approach, I get so excited! I usually cook something for the first day of Autumn each year, and this year was no different. I wanted something with pumpkin, and immidiately thought of sweets. But then as I was browsing around recipes, I found a lot of pumpkin pasta recipes. Yum!! So I decided to make this:

 

Penne with pumpkin and sage sauce

I found the original recipe on Food Network's website by Rachael Ray, but I veganized/changed it a bit!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound whole wheat penne pasta
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 shallots, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
• 1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree
• 1/2 c to 1 c of pasta cooking water (you want to get it the consistency of a sauce, so add what you need.)
• 1/2 c non-dairy cream or milk (I used almond milk)
• 1 tsp of hot sauce
• a pinch of nutmeg
• two pinches of cinnamon
• salt and pepper to taste
• 8 sage leaves, sliced, plus more for garnish

Directions:

1. Boil water for pasta, salt, and cook pasta to al dente.
2. While pasta is boiling, heat your oil over medium heat and add your chopped shallots and garlic.
3. Cook the shallots and garlic until soft, about 3 minutes.
4. Add pumpkin, water, and cream or milk and stir to combine. Add more water or cream/milk if the sauce isn't thin enough for your liking.
5. Stir in hot sauce, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Simmer over medium heat until thickened and well combined.
7. Stir in sage.
8. Add pasta to sauce and toss to combine.

This was really delicious and so easy to make! It remnded me of mac 'n cheese a little bit, but with a twist.

Anyways, happy Autumn, and hopefully you'll see more Autumn recipes from me soon!