Last week, Trevor and I had a blockbuster of a dinner. Dave was down in Waltham, MA at headquarters for meetings, so it was a Non-Diabetics-Only Pasta Party up here on the island. Usually, I'll throw together a quick dinner of linguine and jarred sauce with some fresh veggies tossed in, but I've been eyeing up the pumpkin pasta recipe in Everyday Food magazine for a few weeks.

Not only was this sauce creamy and velvety smooth, it took as much time to cook as the pasta itself. Any dinner that takes ten minutes to prepare gets an "A" in my book. The flavor was reminiscient of an earthy vodka sauce with a hint of pumpkin and garlic. Trevor had two helpings -- this recipe is an easy way to sneak the colorful veggies into dinner if your elementary schooler doesn't have the capers-and-caviar palate that he does.

In my version, I left out the cup of pasta water for a thicker sauce and doubled (tripled... quadrupled...) the garlic, as well as the vinegar. Where the recipe says "season generously with salt," take it to heart. I found it needed a touch more salt than I'm used to adding to bring out the pumpkin flavor. And go lightly on the red pepper flakes. The fried rosemary sprigs tend to burn quickly. It took two tries to get the heat and time just right, but each batch took less than a minute.

Melissa C. Morris has scanned and posted the recipe -- look to her blog for the details:

Penne With Creamy Pumpkin Sauce

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