Easy creamy pumpkin ricotta pasta
This pumpkin ricotta pasta is an incredibly simple and comforting vegetarian fall pasta recipe. It has a delicious sauce that's made with roasted pumpkin and creamy ricotta. If you are searching for fall comfort food recipes to enjoy with your family, this pumpkin pasta recipe is a must-try.
Servings 4
Calories 672kcal
Equipment
- 1 Large cooking pot to cook pasta
- 1 Large strainer to strain pasta
- 1 Pan to make the final dish
- Oven
- 1 baking tray
- Knife and chopping board
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 250 grams uncooked pasta of choice
- 400 grams pumpkin peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 medium onion peeled and diced into large pieces
- 4-5 large garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley or fresh basil
- ¾ cup ricotta cheese
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon chili flakes
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
- 1+1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Water to cook pasta.
Instructions
- Line a large baking tray with a baking sheet. Spread roughly chopped pumpkin, onion, and whole, unpeeled garlic cloves on the sheet. Drizzle some olive oil on the vegetables. Bake in a preheated oven at 200℃ (around 400℉) for 35-40 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked.
- While the vegetables are getting baked, cook pasta al dente following its package instructions. Strain the pasta and reserve around a cup of pasta water.
- Put the baked onion, pumpkin, and pulp of garlic into a blending jar. Add salt, pepper, and around ½ a cup of reserved pasta water. Blend to make a smooth puree
- Heat around 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a pan. Add red chili flakes, dried rosemary, basil, and nutmeg. Saute for a few seconds.
- Add pumpkin puree and ricotta cheese. Mix and cook until the sauce starts bubbling. Check and adjust the seasoning at this stage.
- Add cooked pasta and gently mix. Turn off the heat.
- Garnish with chopped parsley and red chili flakes.
Video
Notes
- Cook pasta al dente, overcooked pasta will break and spoil the whole dish.
- Reserve some pasta water to adjust the consistency of the sauce. Take out the pasta water just before straining the pasta so that it has sufficient starch in it.
- If you don't want to peel and chop the pumpkin, just cut it into large slices, without peeling, and bake for a longer period. Add onion and garlic to the tray after around 15 minutes of baking the pumpkin. Once baked, you can just scoop out the pulp and blend.
- Cut the pumpkin into almost equal size pieces so that all the pieces get evenly baked.
- Saute the seasonings in oil only for a few seconds and then immediately add pumpkin sauce to the pan. Seasonings get burned very fast.
- If you don't like the crumbly texture of ricotta, you can also make similar pumpkin pasta by using cream cheese instead of ricotta cheese.
- For a more creamy ricotta sauce, add around ¼ a cup of heavy cream or half and half to the sauce. You can also add some butter to the sauce if you want to add a creamy and buttery flavor to the pumpkin sauce.
- Check and adjust the seasoning in pumpkin pasta sauce before adding the pasta.
- For a faster version of this recipe, use canned pumpkin puree.
- Vegetables like broccoli, green peas, green beans, baby spinach, mushrooms, etc can also be added to this pasta dish. For that saute chopped vegetables in olive oil before adding pumpkin puree and ricotta cheese.
- Add a crunch and texture to the ricotta pasta by topping it with toasted pinenuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, or any nut of choice.
- You can also make pumpkin ricotta pasta bake with this dish. For that, transfer the pumpkin ricotta pasta to a casserole dish and top it with some shredded melting cheese of choice. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (400°F) for 15 minutes or until the cheese melts and your cheesy pumpkin pasta bake will be ready. If you are planning to bake the pasta, keep slightly more liquid in the sauce so that the pasta doesn't dry up while baking.
- More recipe tips and tricks are shared in the post above, please follow them to make this recipe.
Nutrition
Calories: 672kcal | Carbohydrates: 66g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 40g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 28g | Cholesterol: 7mg | Sodium: 64mg | Potassium: 565mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 10876IU | Vitamin C: 27mg | Calcium: 154mg | Iron: 2mg