Pumpkin Pasta

Pumpkin Pasta (slightly adapted from AllRecipes, Servings: 4, Total Time: 20 minutes)

Ingredients

·         1 box whole wheat penne pasta

·         1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree

·         1 ¼ cups low sodium vegetable broth

·         ½ cup skim milk

·         2 tsp. margarine

·         ¼ tsp. onion powder

·         ¼ tsp. ground black pepper

·         1/4 tsp. salt

·         1 pinch ground cloves

·         1 pinch ground nutmeg

·         1 pinch ground cinnamon

·         1 pinch ground ginger

·         ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Directions

1.       Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, stir in the penne, and return to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions for al dente.

2.       Heat the pumpkin puree, vegetable broth, milk, margarine, onion powder, black pepper, salt, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger in a large skillet over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes.

3.       Stir in the drained pasta, and toss with the Parmesan cheese.

Sometimes you have to try things that are out of your normal repertoire – and Pumpkin Pasta is certainly one of those for my family.  The pasta was OK on flavor – my husband described it as pumpkin pie pasta.  The taste actually got better after leaving it in the refrigerator overnight.

In regards to the spices, I went a little crazy.  We didn’t have cloves, so I made up for it by adding more salt, pepper, onion powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger.  I also tossed in some ground white pepper.  I am not sure how much of each spice I used, I just added and tasted until the mixture tasted good to me.  Even though I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, I don’t think that I’d change anything.  We probably won’t be having this again – when I get stuck eating all of the leftovers, I know that it wasn’t a fan favorite.