Pumpkin Sage Pasta Sauce

Introducing fall flavors into my recipes is one of my favorite things. Every year I wait for this season and I love every minute of it. While most recipes that included pumpkin are sweet I wanted to introduce some more savory recipes this fall and experiment with some new flavors I hadn’t tried together before.

Even while I was researching online for a recipe to adapt it wasnt as easy to find “savory” pumpkin dishes and most everything I found had a sweet element. What I really loved about these flavors was the way in which they worked so well together. This was my first time cooking with fresh sage and the aroma from this incredible herb was intoxicating. To me flavor is more than just taste, its about all of the senses being woken up by the food you are eating.

Along with the sauce which I tossed with some ancient grain penne pasta I also made some brown butter sage chicken which I have also included in this post. Enjoy the first Life as a Maven fall recipe post! 🙂

Pumpkin Sage Sauce

Adapted from the Bake your Day blog

Ingredients:

1 Can Organic Pumpkin Puree

1/8 Teaspoon Nutmeg

1 Tbs Crushed Garlic

2 Fresh Sage leaves

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/2 Cup Reserve Pasta water

1 1/2 Shallots, diced

3 Tbs Fresh grated Parmesan (plus more for garnish)

2 Tbs Olive Oil

2 Dashes of Chili Powder (or more depending on how much of a kick you want)

Instructions:

Put water to boil and cook pasta until Al dente, drain and set aside 1/2 cup pasta water

In a medium pan over medium heat cook olive oil, garlic, sage, dash of salt/pepper and shallots until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add pumpkin, parmesan and chili powder and mix well, cooking until boiling gently. Add 1/2 cup of reserved pasta water and stir well cooking another 2 minutes.

Garlic, shallots, olive oil, salt, pepper and sage

Pumpkin added

Parmesan and Nutmeg added

Chili powder added

Everything mixed together

Toss with pasta and garnish with fresh Parmesan.

Close up of finished product, amazing!

If you would like a protein, I have included the recipe for the chicken as well.

Brown Butter Sage Chicken

Recipe adapted from the Kevin & Amanda blog

Ingredients:

Handful of fresh Sage

Salt & Pepper to taste

4 Tbs Butter

2 Large Chicken breasts (cut in chunks)

Instructions:

Over medium heat melt the butter until it starts to brown and you can smell a buttery aroma. I seasoned the top side of the chicken only (cutting back on salt) with salt and pepper but you can add more depending on what suits you. Put the chicken all in one layer on the pan and then top with sage, cook for 3 minutes until browned and then toss everything together, making sure to also cook the other side for another 3 minutes.

Voila- you have perfect, juicy chicken which I then used to top the amazing, creamy pasta above.