cheese | Jenna's Everything Blog

Happy Thanksgiving!

You probably have pumpkin coming out your ears. In fact, you may at this very moment in time be digging into a slice of pumpkin pie. But I am taking a risk and sending one more pumpkin recipe out there. I figure by the end of the day some of you may have leftover or half-used cans of pumpkin puree, and this dish will give that puree a delicious home.

I found the idea for this recipe on a blog I frequent called The Pajama Chef. Sarah christened the first week of November ‘Pumpkin week’ and posted daily pumpkin recipes. When I pulled up her blog one morning and saw her recipe for what she called ‘Pumpfredo’ sauce, I was intrigued.

Mustard? Yogurt? Pumpkin? Huh?

I just had to try it.

Her version is very healthy–yogurt, no butter, no cream, and only 2 Tablespoons of cheese. But I couldn’t bear to make it with no whipping cream! I had a huge carton of it just sitting in my fridge! So my version has cream. And I had just bought 2 big wedges of Parmesan on sale at the grocery store . . . so I used at least 5 times as much Parmesan as she did. Oh, and because I can’t leave well enough alone, I also added butter. I’m sorry Sarah! I had to follow my heart. And the heavy whipping cream and I go back . . . far back. I hope you understand. My loyalties are deep.

Guys, it’s creamy. It’s rich–but not too rich. With a cup of pure pumpkin puree in it, it’s bound to have some health value. If I had picky eaters around my table, this would be a great way to sneak some veggies into their dinner equation. Of course if I have kids, my plans dictate they will be consummate eaters of things like brussel sprouts. Spinach. Salads.

Things even I rejected as a child.

But that’s why we’re fathering the next generation–so that they can go above and beyond us. Right?

Anyway, let’s get this pumpkin pasta on the table. We’ve got things to do, places to go, stuff to see, and they all involve a plate of this creamalicious orange stuff.

Ingredients

(Serves 5)

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons dijon mustard or spicy brown mustard

1 tablespoon fresh sage or 1 teaspoon dried sage

3/4 c heavy whipping cream

1 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

salt to taste

lots of freshly ground black pepper

2 TBS butter

1 lb pasta, cooked

Place the pumpkin puree (please note: not the same thing as pumpkin pie filling!), mustard, sage, chicken broth in a saucepan.

Give ‘er a good old-fashioned whisk to meld it all together.

Cover and heat to boiling, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for at least 20 minutes or until sauce thickens. When you uncover the old girl, the sauce should pass the ‘drag’ test–if you drag a spatual across the pan, the area should not immediately refill with liquid.

With the heat still on low, add the Parmesan cheese, the butter and the cream.

Cook for 10 minutes over medium-low, stirring frequently, and let it thicken and become glorious.

Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning. I happen to like tons of black pepper in mine. I also recommend adding a solid amount of salt, since once the sauce coats the pasta, the levels of saltiness will need to carry the whole dish through.

Pour the sauce into the cooked pasta . . .

. . . and stir to mix all that lovely goodness together, where it was meant to be from the dawn of time.

Heck yes!

Let it sit for a few minutes to ‘set.’

Serve ‘er up, garnished with some extra sage and parmesan.

She’s a beaut alright.

Grab a fork and dig in!

The pumpkin flavor is there, but it’s not screaming at you. It’s perfect its subtle creaminess.

This would be perfect served with a little leftover turkey. Uh huh.

Enjoy, my friends! I hope you’re all having a beautiful day with family and friends . . .

Of course, I’m just remembering this is the internet. And not all of you live in the US. In fact, Canadians are waaaay over Thanksgiving. They had theirs ages ago.

So for my international friends–I love you too. Make this fettuccine. Amen.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Pumpkin Fettuccine Alfredo

This was our recipe of choice for Family Vacay 2010, and the photographs below were taken during that marvelous week. My husband and I were in charge of feeding a dozen people Thursday night, and this dish was the obvious pick. It’s an adapted version of a dish served at Yat’s, a Cajun restaurant in Bloomington. This recipe makes such a large pot that there were ample leftovers the next day–I estimate the batch we made would have fed about 16 people; the recipe below is for 8-10 so that you don’t have Etouffée coming out of your ears. Before you start cutting down the recipe even more though, please consider this: it’s so amazing that even if you’re just feeding 2 or 3, you can freeze the rest and thus ensure that when the craving hits you again (and it will hit you hard) it is immediately on hand.

This is probably the most delicious recipe on this blog to date. The Mush is really good . . . the caramelized salmon is also superb . . . but this recipe is crowd-friendly and I guarantee everyone will love it. Unless they’re lactose and gluten intolerant, in which case you need to make a separate little stirfry for them.

Poor Luke. I hope he doesn’t know what he’s missing.

This recipe is so good that:

1. My 14-year-old cousin Brianna adored it. She normally only eats Chicken Noodle Soup and string cheese, so this is saying a lot.

2. Both my sister Heidi and I had this dish served at our weddings. Yup.

Before we jump in, let’s get in the mood for a hot stew-like concoction by examining pictures of the rainy day on the lake.

I deserted any pretense of subtlety and electrified the blue in this water using a fun tool in Photoshop: “Selective Color.” If you own Photoshop but haven’t used it, get with the plan, Stan.

Mmmm, I’m getting hungrier by the minute.

One more explanation and then I promise we’ll get to the good stuff. The step-by-step pictures. You see, I had just changed my lens to my zoom lens in order to capture the raindrops on the lake from a safe distance. Then I came back to the main house to cook. If you remember the post about our lodgings during Family Vacay 2010 (click here to read), you’ll recall that I was staying in a separate smaller cabin, where my other lens was housed. And I was not going back out into the rain to change that lens, golldarnheckanannywhillikins. Therefore, all these pictures were taken with a zoom lens that required me to be very far away from the pot I was attempting to photograph, which proved to be quite awkward. Do I regret my choice? If I say yes, my Mom might say “I told you so,” so I’ll stick by it. But that’s why the pictures are a little . . . a little not so awesome. But the food was!

Now that I’ve got you on board with how amazing this is going to be, let’s begin. There is a long list of ingredients, but most of that list is just composed of spices, plus you really just toss everything into a pot anyway. It’s not difficult—please trust me. To prove this I will walk you through it step by step.

Ingredients

(Serves 8-10)

1 1/2 sticks butter

3/4 cups flour

1 bunch chopped green onions

2 stalks celery

1 large onion

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper (I added a yellow one too)

6 cloves garlic

1-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

½ tsp dried thyme

1 TBS tomato paste

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp chili powder

Pinch ground coriander

Pinch ground cumin

Pinch ground cloves

Dash Worcestershire sauceDash Tabasco sauce

1/4 c dry sherry

3 cups chicken stock

3 cups shredded aged cheddar

8 oz heavy whipping cream

4 chicken breasts

Cooked white rice, to serve

First, chop all your stuff: the celery, peppers, onions, and garlic. You can chop up your chicken now as well if you feel like it, though it doesn’t go in until the end.

Shred your aged cheddar–please make the extra investment and buy some good quality aged cheddar, because this is a key flavor and I promise it will make a big difference.

Melt the butter in a large, large pot. When it’s melted, add the flour. Don’t be like me and take a hideous blurry picture because you’re too lazy to change your lens.

Stir over medium heat to create what’s called a roux. Keep it cooking until it gets to be a golden brown and releases a nutty scent. This took me about 10 minutes. Check out the change in color from the pale yellow above to the rich golden hue below:

Add the chopped green onions, onion, garlic, bell peppers, and celery.

And we’re done! Doesn’t it look appetizing?

Just kidding! Cook those veggies about 6 minutes, until softened.

Add the tomato paste and all the spices. Cook for another few minutes, stirring to combine.

Add the can of diced tomatoes. Cook for another few minutes.

Add the Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, dry sherry, and chicken stock.

Bring ‘er to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for a good 30 minutes. It should thicken a good bit–that’s the magic of the roux happening.