Between Halloween and Thanksgiving, my house is decked out in fall leaves, pumpkins big and small, and decorative turkeys and colored corn. I love fall, my favorite season. Comfort food, sweaters and scarves, and fires roaring in the fireplace…perfect! Tonight, while finally recovered from the non-fun part of cooler weather, a head cold, I made this comforting autumn dish.

©EverydayCookingAdventures 2013

I haven’t done much with pumpkin before. I’ve only made pumpkin pie (yum yum yum) and pumpkin soup (also yummy). Tonight was the first time I made a pumpkin main course. Prepping was a little timely, with having to de-seed, peel, and chop up the pumpkin, but I turned the task into a reward by roasting the pumpkin seeds in the oven for a healthy snack.

©EverydayCookingAdventures 2013

The dish came out looking quite fall-ish with the orange pumpkins and green thyme sprigs. I didn’t have pappardelle so I used what I had in the house, angel hair pasta. While I’m sure this wasn’t perfect, it did the trick. As a fan of light sauce on my pasta, this dish hit the spot. It definitely needed a good dash of salt and black pepper but the sweet onions and savory pumpkin complemented each other nicely. I enjoyed the change of pasta pace.  Next time I will try using butternut squash to see if it makes a difference in taste. +Real Simple Here’s my autumn pumpkin pasta:

Real Simple Buttery Pappardelle with Pumpkin & Caramelized Onions ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2013

Buttery Pappardelle With Pumpkin and Caramelized Onions

From: Real Simple Magazine, November 2013

Serves: 2
Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 oz. pappardelle pasta
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 1/4 small sugar pumpkin—peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 fresh thyme sprigs, plus 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/3 cup grated pecorino cheese, plus more for serving (optional)

Directions
1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water; drain the pasta and return it to the pot.

2. Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 14 to 16 minutes. Transfer to a plate; reserve the skillet.

3. Add the pumpkin, thyme sprigs, and 1/2 cup water to the reserved skillet, cover partially, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pumpkin is very soft and most of the water has evaporated, 6 to 8 minutes.

4. Add the onion, pumpkin, thyme leaves, pecorino, the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, and ½ cup of the reserved cooking water to the pasta and toss to coat (adding more cooking water as needed to loosen the sauce). Serve the pasta with black pepper and additional pecorino, if desired.

*Substitution Tip: You can substitute almost any winter squash for the sugar pumpkin. Butternut will give you a sweeter pasta, kabocha or acorn a more savory one.