Sage Pumpkin Pasta Bake with Kale and Buttered Pecans
This cheesy Sage Pumpkin Pasta Bake is the ultimate grown-up, autumn casserole recipe. It's dotted with kale, topped with butter pecans, and smothered in an easy to make and healthy creamy pumpkin sauce.
I've made us pastaaaaa! Gather 'round my friends, today I'm doing something I rarely ever do here on TEM. Today, I'm sharing a great big, giant pot of cheesy pasta with you. Happy Friday!
Except that *rarely* isn't exactly true since I shared another pasta recipe with you a few days ago. What's going on? Full on autumn mode, that's what.
I may have mentioned (whined and complained) that autumn is my least favorite season. Sure, the leaves are brightly colored, but they're dying. DYING. It's sad. The rain, chilly air, and short days are so not my thing.
BUT … autumn does mean that I get to turn on my oven and stand in front of it soaking up the heat and dreaming of Mexico. Tell me you do that, too.
So today let's dig into a pot hot, bubbly, cheesy, pumpkin pasta and try our best to embrace this whole creeping towards winter thing. You with me?
See this Pumpkin Pasta Bake thing-y going on here? This was supposed to be lasagna. Not even joking.
This is what happens when you go to the store and buy everything you need for lasagna except you forget the lasagna noodles and have to run back five minutes before they close and find out they don't have lasagna noodles. Phew, run on sentence!
Seriously, what's up with not having lasagna noodles?! There was every shape of pasta I've heard of, tons I have never seen and don't know how to pronounce and made from everything from wheat to kamut to edamame and red beans. All that, but no lasagna noodles.
My lazy self won over and I decided not to walk the 15 minutes to another grocery store and instead turn my pumpkin lasagna dreams into a cheesy pumpkin pasta bake.
Your pumpkin pasta game plan:
There are a few steps to getting the pasta ready to be baked in the pot, but each step is super easy.
1 → Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook then drain the pasta. Easy!
2 → Toast the pecans in a little butter in a frying pan. Easy!
3 → Saute the onion, garlic, and kale. Easy!
4 → Mix the cottage cheese with the pumpkin and a few spices to make the healthy cheese sauce. Easy!
Then all you have to do is mix everything together and pop it in your oven. By the time your pot of pumpkin pasta is ready to come out of the oven, you'll have the dishes washed and be halfway through that glass of wine. 🙂
Healthy Vegetarian Pasta Recipes:
- Warm Caprese Pesto Pasta
- One Pot Vegan Pasta with Spicy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
- Fresh Summer Spaghetti
- Deliciously Rich Lentil Bolognese
- Date Night Beet and Goat Cheese Wonton Ravioli
- Easy Vegetarian Skillet Lasagna with Kale Olive Pesto
Sage Pumpkin Pasta Bake with Kale and Butter Pecans
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 17 ounces fusilli pasta, gluten-free, if needed
- 2 teaspoons salted butter
- ½ cup pecans, coarsely chopped
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups torn kale
- 14 ounce canned pumpkin
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon each: black pepper and cayenne
- 8 ounces mozzarella, grated
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook the fusilli in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and toss with a little olive oil.17 ounces fusilli pasta
- While the pasta is cooking prepare the rest of the meal. Melt the butter in a small frying pan over medium-high heat and add the pecans. Toast until they are fragrant, about 5 minutes.2 teaspoons salted butter, ½ cup pecans
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook till soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and kale and cook until the kale is wilted, about 2 minutes.1 teaspoon olive oil, 1 red onion, 2 cloves garlic, 2 cups torn kale
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix the pumpkin, cottage cheese, sage, black pepper, cayenne, and salt.14 ounce canned pumpkin, 1 cup cottage cheese, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage, ½ teaspoon each: black pepper and cayenne, 1 teaspoon sea salt
- Spread a scoop of the pumpkin into the bottom of a casserole dish or ovenproof pot. Layer with ⅓ of the pasta, ⅓ of the pumpkin, ⅓ of the kale, and ⅓ of the mozzarella. Repeat 2 more times. Top the pasta with the buttered pecans and bake uncovered for 25 minutes, or until the pasta is hot and bubbling.8 ounces mozzarella
This came out great. Will definitely be making again. I did take the advise of one of the reviewers who said the sauce was too thick and needed to be thinned out. While blending I adding some half and half and once I mixed it all together with the pasta, it was still a bit too thick so I added some reserved pasta water. Instead of a cup of cottage cheese I used 1/2 cup plus another 1/2 cup of ricotta. I used the mozzarella per the directions but I also topped everything with 1/2 cup of grated fontina cheese before popping it into the oven. I also used rotini, not fusilli. I noticed the photos of this recipe was different than the directions of the recipe. You said to chop the sage and the pecans, yet your photo shows full pecans and full sage leaves. I guess you did it that way because it photographed better.
I made this tonight and was disappointed. The whole thing turned out super dry – I think it would help if the sauce was thinned down with almond milk or another liquid in the blender. I even made more sauce than was specified due to previous reviews but it still wasn’t enough. Bummed to have a whole heap of pasta that’s not very tasty 🙁
I’m sorry to hear that it wasn’t a hit for you.
Definitely a keeper! We loved it. I did change it up a bit:
Subbed smoked paprika for cayenne, since we’re not huge fans of spicy hot.
Put the cottage cheese and pumpkin in the blender to make it nice and smooth.
And then I reserved a bit of mozzarella and the nuts, threw everything in the pasta pot, mixed it up, topped it with the cheese and nuts and popped it in the oven.
I didn’t see much point in layering the ingredients. It’s not lasagna, and I really did want the sauce and all the goodies well-integrated with the pasta. Also, I was running out of time and it seemed simpler to just mix it all up.
Good call on mixing it up rather than layering. Definitely a time saver! So happy to hear that the recipe as a hit!
Ahhhh mazing. So so good. For my hubby I thew in some sausage instead of the pecans. Instant favorite for all of us including our one year old baby girl; who said, and I quote, ” mmmmmmm” and cleaned her plate.
Awww I love it! Best compliment!
We love this! I thought the pecans would be strange but everyone agreed that they made the recipe. Will make it again!
I’m so happy you liked the recipe!
Delicious!! My husband and I couldn’t stop eating it! I loved the contrast of the pecans to the creamy sauce and I thought the use of red onion was really unique. We are adding this to the fall dinner rotation!
I’m so happy to hear it was a hit!!
Super excited to try this tonight! Swapping ricotta for cottage cheese (because cottage cheese freaks me out) and adding some ground turkey (browning it in the dutch oven after the onions but before the kale) at the request of the BF – fingers crossed it all works, it sounds divine!
I hope you love it!!
Tried this last night and I used half the pasta suggested and there was hardly enough of the pumpkin cheese mixture to spread. Also the cottage cheese didn’t melt so just random white cures everywhere. Very dry recipe with just half the pasta called for. Pretty sad cause it’s not really tasty if the pasta isn’t in a creamy sauce like anticipated. Threw it out.
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t love it.