Pumpkin and Red Wine Pasta Bake

I know, I know, autumn is long past. Winter is holding on, but only barely. My favorite season came and left too fast, and I had been desirous of… pumpkin. Yes, pumpkin. I have an inner basic bitch inside me at all times screaming, “BUT DOES IT HAVE PUMPKIN IN IT?!” regarding nearly everything. I thought I could draw the line at coffee and candles, but oh no, that would be impossible. My inner basic bitch whispered to me one night as I made a pasta bake, “hey, maybe you could put pumpkin in that.” At first the idea was absurd. “That’ll be nasty” I told my inner basic bitch, but she was confident after a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. “Pumpkin is essentially flavorless” she insisted. Almost without realizing what I was doing, I had opened a can of pumpkin and added it to my cheese sauce. My meat and tomato sauce was bubbling away on the other burner, and my inner basic bitch took over again, and casually poured half the wine bottle into the sauce, “wine can never be bad” she cooed. Then she splashed some heavy cream into the meat sauce and exclaimed, “YOLO!” After that, I took over the spices and tasted the sauce. I realized it reminded me of a quick and dirty version of a Bolognese, which I adore. I combined the pumpkin cheese sauce with the pasta, layered the meat, tomato, and wine sauce over the top to create something like lasagna, sprinkled mozzarella cheese on top, and baked it. The result was surprisingly heavenly. It had a depth to it from the wine and the pumpkin that was truly tasty. Well played inner basic bitch, well played.

Ingredients:

Rotini pasta 1 box

Cream cheese 8oz

Sour cream 8oz

Pumpkin  puree 1 can

Ground beef 2 lbs

Pasta sauce 1 jar

Red wine 2 cups

Heavy cream (just a splash)

Italian seasoning

Mozzarella cheese (as much as you want)

Vessels:

Large pot

Large deep pan

Casserole dish

Large mixing bowl

Performance:

I began by allowing the cream cheese and sour cream to come to room temperature as this makes for easier mixing later. I then cooked the pasta according to the directions. In a separate deep pan I browned the ground beef with Italian seasoning. Once the beef was cooked through, I added the pasta sauce and red wine. Once the majority of the wine had reduced I added a splash of heavy cream. I set the meat sauce aside and worked on the cheese sauce.  I put the cream cheese, sour cream, and pumpkin in a large mixing bowl and stirred until well combined. I then added the cheese mixture to the pasta and stirred until even distributed. After that, I smoothed the pasta and cheese mixture onto the bottom of a greased casserole dish. I then poured the meat sauce over the cheese and pasta. I topped the two layers with a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese. Finally, I baked it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes until the cheese was browned and bubbly.