Homemade Pumpkin Pasta

This isn't just a great homemade pasta recipe--this is a recipe for pumpkin pasta.  Not pasta with a pumpkin sauce, but rather fresh pasta noodles made with actual pumpkin.

It's the first Monday of the month, and that means it's time for the Taste Creations Blog Hop!  Our theme ingredient this month?  Pumpkin, of course.

I've made regular gnocchi before (also for this blog hop!), and I've made pumpkin ravioli before (before I ever started this blog), so I thought making pumpkin gnocchi would be fun, delicious, and perfect for fall.  And I did, but I also discovered that this particular pasta dough is MUCH better made into fettuccine pasta.

(And if you can't get enough delicious Italian pumpkin recipes, be sure to try this amazing pumpkin risotto.)

Pumpkin Pasta Recipe:

• 3 cups flour
• one egg
• one cup pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

The techniqure was so easy, too.  Just mix the ingredients...

...and knead into a dough, then shape into whatever shape of pasta you want.

How to Make Homemade Pasta

I made my pumpkin pasta dough into fettuccine pasta using my Kitchenaid pasta roller and cutter attachment.

Divide the dough into quarters.  Set the pasta roller to the largest setting (setting 1 on my pasta roller attachment).

Even after kneading the dough by hand, the fresh pasta dough needs to be worked to turn into silky, fresh pasta noodles.  The first few times I put the dough through the pasta roller, it tore, like you can see in the photo above.  Don't worry, that's part of the normal process.

Take the rolled pasta, set it on a floured surface, and fold the pasta dough on itself, then feed it through the pasta machine again.

Keep folding and running the dough through the roller on the largest setting, until the dough is smooth and elastic, and doesn't tear any more.

At this point, you can change the setting on the pasta roller to make the sheet of fresh pasta dough thinner.

Only make the pasta dough thinner one step at a time.  Set the machine to setting 2, and roll the pasta through.  Then you can move to setting 3, then 4, etc.  Don't try to skip settings; progress through the settings one by one until you reach the thinness you want for your pasta.  I made my homemade fettuccine pasta with pasta dough rolled to setting 4.

Switch the Kitchenaid pasta attachment from the roller to the cutter, and run the sheet of fresh pasta dough through the device.  It cuts the pasta dough into perfect ribbons.

Coat the strands of fresh pasta with flour and form into nests if cooking soon, or hang the pasta to dry on a pasta drying rack.

You can also freeze the nests of fresh pasta!  When cooking the frozen, fresh pasta, don't let it defrost, just put the frozen pasta directly in the boiling water.  You'll need to cook the pasta for about one extra minute if cooking from frozen.

How to Cook Fresh Pumpkin Pasta

Bring well-salted water to a full boil before adding the fresh pasta.

Fresh pasta only takes a minute or two to cook, so cook briefly, taste the pasta to determine if it's done to your taste, and drain.

I made a simple sage browned-butter sauce for my pumpkin pasta.

And sprinkled it with a little parmesan.  So simple, and SO good.

Be sure to check out the other fabulous pumpkin recipes in this month's Taste Creations Blog Hop:

Our Good Life:  Pumpkin Spice Latte

An Italian in my Kitchen:  Pumpkin Gelato