And it’s this creamy, rich quality that makes them perfect for sauces.
Though winter squash can vary greatly on the outside, with different shapes, sizes, and colors ranging from orange to yellow to whites to subtle blues and deep greens, interestingly, they are all similar on the inside- with orange-yellow flesh and a center full of seeds.
How to make Stuffed Shells with Creamy Pumpkin Sauce
Step 1: Roast the pumpkin. Cut the pumpkin in half, scrape out the seeds, place it on a parchment lined sheet pan and roast in 425F oven for 30-40 minutes or until tender when pierced with the tip of a fork.
Yes, you can use canned pumpkin puree. 🙂
Step 5: Assemble and Bake!
Pour a little sauce on the bottom of a greased baking dish.
You can use one large baking dish or several small individual baking dishes.
On the homefront: Like fireworks in the night sky, they exploded over our heads, raining down seeds and guts and orange flesh. This is what happens when you play pumpkin baseball.
I never knew smashing pumpkins could be so much fun! Perhaps a bit irreverent, but soon they would become mulch anyhow- so we started the process a few days early.
A golden light-filled afternoon spent outside with friends – pressing fresh apples into cider, pumpkin picking, and pumpkin carving -turned into an unforgettable evening. After dinner, a scavenger hunt entertained the kids, then a jack-o-lantern contest with pumpkin faces all aglow in the dark.
Before the night ended, we took to the lawn. Pumpkin baseball! Organized lines of pitchers and batters sprayed pumpkin bits across the starry night towards the pumpkin patch. It was messy, beautiful, and exhilarating and for a few fleeting minutes, I felt like a kid again, giddy!
Wish you moments of pure joyous giddiness this weekend.
xoxo
Stuffed Shells with Pumpkin Sauce
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 60 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Yield: 6
- Category: Main
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Pacific Northwest
Description
Stuffed shells with Italian sausage (or substitute mushrooms) and a creamy flavorful Pumpkin Parmesan sauce.
Ingredients
- 2 cups roasted pumpkin (or any winter squash like acorn, kuri, delicata, butternut.... or use canned pumpkin puree)
- 24 large pasta “shells” about 10 oz
- 16 oz Spicy Italian sausage ( turkey sausage, or plant-based sausage or ground plant-based meat)
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup diced onion
- 4 cloves garlic- minced
- 8 oz mushrooms, finely chopped, optional
- 2 tablespoons fresh sage
- 2 tablespoons toasted Pine nuts ( optional)
- 15 oz ricotta cheese
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- 1/4- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 cup whole milk or nut milk
- 1/2 cup Parmesan or pecorino romano cheese
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp sugar or maple
- pinch white pepper
- fresh grated nutmeg or 1/2 tsp ground
Instructions
- 425 F Oven
- Roast winter squash: cut it in half, scrape out seeds and roast open side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 35-45 minutes, until easily pierced with the tip of a knife.
- In the meantime, boil water for shells, and cook shells according to directions. Drain, coat with olive oil and set aside.
- Make the filling: Brown the sausage in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Set aside on a paper-lined plate. Wipe out skillet, heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil and saute onions over med heat until golden and tender. Add garlic and optional mushrooms. Saute on med-low heat until mushrooms are tender. Add sage, saute for one minute and turn heat off. Place sausage back in to the pan and stir in pine nuts (optional), ricotta and mozzarella. Taste for salt ( some sausage is saltier than others) and add 1/4- 1/2 tsp kosher salt -if needed, and cracked pepper. Stir and set aside. See notes for vegetarian version.
- Make the Pumpkin Sauce: When the pumpkin is done, remove from oven, turn heat down to 350. Spoon out 2 cups of roasted squash into a blender with cold chicken stock, milk, Parmesan, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, nutmeg and pepper. Blend until very smooth and silky.
- In a large greased baking dish ( or individual ramekins) pour enough sauce to coat the bottom. Stuff the shells and place them in the baking dish over the sauce.
- Pour more sauce over top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 F until heated through, about 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking another 10 minutes. You could add more cheese or any remaining sauce to the top at this point.
- Enjoy!
Notes
To keep this vegetarian, sub vegan chorizo, or just use 1 lb pound of mushrooms sauteed.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 469
- Sugar: 7.6 g
- Sodium: 820.6 mg
- Fat: 15.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 6.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 53.8 g
- Fiber: 5.8 g
- Protein: 29.4 g
- Cholesterol: 50.1 mg
Definitely a 5 star rating!
Thank you!
Excellent recipe. I made it vegetarian using extra mushrooms. Quite delicious. I have extra sauce and thought I’d use it over pasta with sautéed mushrooms. Any other ideas you might suggest?
Glad you enjoyed, I mean you can never go wrong with extra mushrooms! The sauce would be good with polenta, raviolis, lentil rice bowls with mushrooms and greens? 🙂
An option says to use nut milk, but can unsweetened plain oat milk work or would that flavor not be good?
That sounds fine Dina!
Thank you! Can this be pre-assembled the day before so it’s ready to just bake the day of? If so, are there any adjustments you’d suggest?
I think you could stuff the shells and keep the sauce separate and add just before baking.
Really loved this recipe! My sauce came out thicker than I would have liked but the filling itself was SO good! I could have just ate the filling out of a bowl
Great to hear! I will double check the sauce recipe.
Delicious! I loved how easy and flavorful the sauce was. I used the flesh of a roasted heirloom pumpkin which gave the sauce a vibrant orange color. I used both sausage and mushrooms in the filling. The added texture and flavor of the pine nuts in the filling were nice. It was a rich, comforting and delicious dish.
Great to hear Amanda!
When my children were in grade school, we played “Apple Splat Baseball” with the mealy/buggy apples. They LOVED the explosion on impact! I can’t wait to try this soon with the pumpkin that has been sitting on my entry table as a fall decoration.
Enjoy!
I want to make this recipe for my vegetarian neighbor by adding mushrooms as you suggested. Is the 8oz in recipe enough or do I need to add more and if so, how much.
Do you want to use a plant-based sausage as well? If not, I would do a pound of mushrooms. 😉
This recipe looks wonderful! I want to share it with a non-dairy-eating friend. Can nondairy cheeses be substituted here successfully?
HI Margie- Yes I think it should be fine! Your friend could make our tofu riccotta and then buy vegan cheese for the rest. 🙂
This recipe is the bomb! This will be the second year I make a huge batch.
I buy high end (Le Crueset or Staub) bakeware, fill each with this recipe and freeze (it freezes nicely). Each of my three adult children and their significant others LOVE this as a Christmas gift, and I love giving it.
thanks, that’s awesome Patrice!
Absolutely delicious. I substituted walnuts because that’s what I had, but otherwise made the recipe as is. Will make time and time again. We loved it.
I have made this twice and it is amazing! Comforting and elegant at the same time. Great for an anytime meal or a pasta course for a dinner party. I made it just as written the first time, then substituted marinara sauce instead of the squash the second time. Both options were great. The squashes I used were butternut and acorn, mixed. I added rosemary instead of the sage when I used the marinara sauce. Oh, and I used a piping bag to fill the shells. Very helpful and not as messy.
Great to hear Christy, thanks for sharing!
I had a mother-load of butternut-like squash this year and I love this one made with squash. The sauce is creamy and mild and the filling yummy! I look forward to making it again and again! Thanks for this recipe…..I never would have thought to make squash(or pumpkin) into a sauce.
Thanks and Im so glad you used your own homegrown squash! So perfect!
I’ve just found your website a few weeks ago, this was the first of several things I’ve made so far!
Everything turned out really well. I followed the instructions to a tee. I thought the sauce was delicious, but next time I think I may try a blend of two smaller squashes just to see if its any sweeter.
On to the Sumac Chicken tonight!
Thanks, love your ideas!
Thanks so much for the note Michelle and welcome to the blog! Let me know how it goes with the different squashes…I think that is a great idea. this time, did you use a sugar pumpkin? Hope you love the Sumac Chicken as much as I do. All the best to you!!
Thanks for the feedback. I am really sorry the sauce did not turn out. Can you tell me if you followed it exactly -or if you made any modifications? Did you use chicken stock and add parmesan? Will double check the recipe. Again, appreciate you letting me know.
Gah. These look amazing. I seriously can’t get enough of this post! Every element of the recipe sounds positively crave-worthy — and I love that your shells have little basket handles! The better to carry them to my mouth. 🙂
Thanks!!
Love the pumpkin sauce idea! Creamy and healthy. Pumpkin baseball? Hahaha… That sounds fun. But I just hope I won’t get hit by a pumpkin. That must hurt!