Happy fall, everyone! It’s officially my favorite time of year, and I couldn’t be more ready for cooler weather, colorful leaves, and pumpkin everything. To kick off the fall recipes, I decided on something simple that the whole family will love — Easy Pumpkin Pasta Sauce!
I came up with this sauce on a weeknight when I didn’t want to spend hours in the kitchen, but I also wanted something warm and comforting that my family would enjoy. Everyone gave this pumpkin pasta sauce two thumbs up, so it has been added to our fall dinner rotation!
I used pre-made GF gnocchi as my pasta of choice and added spinach to the colander before draining the gnocchi over it to wilt the leaves. You could use any pasta you like and add more veggies, such as mushrooms, broccoli, or cubes of your favorite winter squash.
All you need for this pumpkin pasta sauce recipe is a blender and a pot for cooking the onion and garlic. While the onion and garlic are cooking, simply empty one can of pumpkin purée and one can of coconut milk into a blender, along with salt and pepper. Stir some dried sage and crushed red pepper flakes in with the onion and garlic, then pour the mixture into the blender and blend until creamy and smooth. Return the sauce to the pot and cook on low until hot, then turn off the heat and stir in the sherry. Now your sauce is ready for your pasta!
- ½ yellow onion, chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 15-oz can pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 13.5-oz can coconut milk
- Salt (start with ½ tsp)
- Black pepper
- ½ tsp dried sage
- ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 2-3 tsp sherry*
- Sauté onion and garlic over medium heat in ¼ inch of water until translucent, about 5 mins.
- While onions and garlic are cooking, add the pumpkin purée, coconut milk, salt and pepper.
- When the onions and garlic have finished cooking, stir in the sage and pepper flakes for about 30 seconds, then pour contents of pot into the blender. Blend until completely smooth, then taste for seasoning.
- Return sauce to pot and cook over medium-low heat until hot enough to serve. Turn off the heat and stir in the sherry.
- Ladle pumpkin sauce over your favorite pasta, and keep leftover sauce in the fridge up to one week.
You could easily run to Trader Joe’s and buy a jar of pumpkin pasta sauce, but theirs probably contains junk ingredients like diary and oils, not to mention the high levels of sodium typically found in jarred sauces. This sauce comes together in 15 minutes and is much better for you and your family. If you like pumpkin, you need to try this simple sauce!
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Also try my Roasted Vegetable Alfredo Bake!
Hey There Mary Ross, it’s Carly from small group years ago. Anyway I woke up this morning and thought to myself, I need some pumpkin food. I quickly forgot about it, as I usually do and somehow through the magic of 🤮 Facebook ended up at your pumpkin pasta recipe anyway. 😍💞🎃 It was fate! It has a Date with my Plate and it’s gonna be Great. If it’s even half as good as anything I’ve eaten of yours in the past, It’ll be a hit. I’m also really loving some of your other recipes. I’ve experienced arthritis pain for the first time recently and vitamins and changes to my diet seemed to take care of it when nothing else was so I’m extra thrilled that I ran across your blog. I’ll let you know how it turns out. I hope you all are doing well. ❤️ If you ever want to grab lunch, let the kids play, or dinner somewhere with the whole family, let me know. We’d love to see you guys again.
Chow Bella 😉
It’s SO good to hear from you! I’m glad you rediscovered the blog, and I hope you love the pumpkin recipe! It’s crazy that we haven’t seen you and your family in so long, so we need to remedy that soon. I know the holidays are a crazy time, but maybe we can put something on the calendar. I bet your kids have grown a lot since I saw them last! Thanks so much for commenting 🙂