By Joy Stewart of Joyous Kitchen
Lately, I’ve been seeing a fabulous trend: creamy, silky pumpkin pasta sauce. In some instances, this is created by combining pasta water with pumpkin puree and in others, the puree is thinned by cream. I’ve decided to go the cream route, as well as incorporating some white wine. To balance the sweet I’ve added kale and to heighten the decadence of the rich, creamy sauce I’ve added mild Italian sausage. The anise in the sausage brings out the lightly sweet notes in the kale and is a fabulous compliment. If you like a bit of crunch you could add toasted pine nuts over top of the finished dish.
Ingredients
6 ounces chopped kale, stems discarded
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup (reserved) pasta water (see method)
1 lb sweet Italian sausage
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 lb thick spaghetti or bucatini
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
For serving:
Fresh parmesan
Chopped Parsley
Toasted chopped nuts
Method
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, In a large, heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil and sausage. Once the water is boiling add pasta and cook according to package directions. Break up sausage into small bits and saute until thoroughly cooked, scoop out sausage into a bowl and set aside, leaving the fat in the pan. In the fat saute shallots until starting to brown, then add kale. Saute until kale begins to crisp lightly, then add wine and pasta water to deglaze. Once kale is cooked to your liking, scoop it out into the bowl with the sausage, leaving liquid and fat in the pan. Turn heat to low, add pumpkin and cream, stirring to combine. When the pumpkin is combined, reintroduce kale, sausage and pasta and toss to combine thoroughly. Serve hot topped with grated parmesan, chopped parsley and toasted nuts (if desired).
