Ingredients
Method
- Preheat your oven to 400°F.
- Cut your pie pumpkin in half, and remove all of the seeds and pumpkin guts.
- Chop the pumpkin into pieces and place on a baking sheet.
- Cut off the top of the head of garlic so all cloves are exposed, and place on the baking sheet with the pumpkin pieces.
- Drizzle with 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Let the pumpkin cool, then remove the rind from the roasted pumpkin.
- Add the roasted pumpkin to a food processor along with the roasted garlic (you can squeeze it right out of the skin).
- Pour in 1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of water, and blend until smooth.
- While the pumpkin is roasting, you can make your pesto! Add the basil, parmesan, pepitas, lemon juice, 1/3 cup olive oil, roasted garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes to a food processor and pulse until it reaches your desired consistency. ***I used 2 cloves of roasted garlic that I had leftover from another recipe, but you can either wait for your head of garlic to be roasted and use some of that or use raw garlic cloves - I realize not everyone will have roasted garlic on hand!***
- Puree the white onion and add to a pan with the Italian sausage, and cook until sausage is browned.
- Pour in the pumpkin sauce mixture and heat on low for a few minutes, stirring often. The sauce will begin to thin a bit from the heat.
- Add in half of the pumpkin seed pesto, and the cooked rigatoni pasta, and stir to combine.
- Plate up and garnish as desired with dollops of pumpkin seed pesto, parmesan cheese, roasted pepitas, red pepper flakes, and/or fresh basil, and enjoy!