creamy pumpkin paccheri pasta

This comforting dinner idea for a creamy pumpkin paccheri pasta is levelled up from leftover pumpkin cheese fondue and comes together in about 10 minutes.

I’m so excited to bring you a new series to my YouTube channel. It’s like RECIPE?! but levelled up. It’s time to #levelupyourleftovers with all of your fave hot for food staple recipes. I’m not a huge fan of eating the same thing twice, so unless my leftovers get a makeover, I’m not satisfied. I hope you feel the same, because I want to take your suggestions of all the recipes you eat often from the blog or my first cookbook, Vegan Comfort Classics, and level up the leftovers into brand new meal ideas.

This week I started with the pumpkin cheese fondue as inspiration. Sure, you can eat the whole dang batch of creamy cheese, but if it’ll be a halloween bash all alone this year (cause, pandemic living!) then you’ll definitely have some leftovers. You can easily freeze the fondue, or the next day warm some up to make a creamy pumpkin paccheri pasta. I chose large noods for this dish because they look scrumptious and can really handle a lot of sauce. The recipe follows below, but if you’re looking for another way to level up your leftover pumpkin cheese fondue check out the cozy pumpkin chowder.

5 from 3 votes

Print Recipe

creamy pumpkin paccheri pasta

This comforting dinner idea is levelled up from leftover pumpkin cheese fondue and comes together in about 10 minutes.

Course dinner

Cuisine American, Italian

Keyword pasta, pumpkin, vegan cheese sauce

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Servings 2

Author Lauren Toyota

Ingredients

• 250 g dried paccheri (or sub rigatoni)
• 1 ½ C leftover pumpkin cheese fondue
• ¼ C shredded vegan parmesan
• 2 tbsp toasted walnuts, rough chopped
• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh sage
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to al dente and reserve ¼ cup of the starchy pasta water before draining. Drain the pasta, but do not rinse.

2. Either heat up leftover pumpkin cheese sauce in the same pot, then add in pasta and toss to coat. You might want to add a bit of pasta water to smooth out the sauce (this is optional). Alternatively, you can add drained pasta to serving bowls and pour heated pumpkin cheese sauce over top. It's a personal preference. Garnish with vegan parmesan, toasted walnuts, fresh sage, and ground black pepper. Serve immediately.