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This cozy bowl of Pumpkin Spaghetti O’s has quickly become one of our favorite fall pastas. I took the small little O-shaped pasta in a can, that we all grew up enjoying as kids, and updated it with a rich and creamy pumpkin sauce and golden brown butter. Simply boil everything together until al dente, mix in a bit of cheese, and finish with herbs. It’s a very cozy dish of cheesy spaghetti O-s that’s just fit for fall.
Ok, I know this is kind of different. We all think of Spaghetti O’s and immediately we think of the red sauce O-shaped pasta. Maybe yours had meatballs, maybe it didn’t. Either way, we’re all familiar with the canned pasta.
Honestly, I didn’t grow up eating a lot of Spaghetti O’s. It was more something my older brother, Creighton enjoyed. But I’ll forever remember opening up the kitchen cabinet and consistently seeing the two cans of Spaghetti O’s my mom kept on hand.
I’ve always been more of a cream sauce or oil-based pasta girl. But I’m sure I had a can or two of Spaghetti O’s in my lifetime. Either way, I love the fun O-shape pasta and we all know that I have a lot of fun recreating old-school recipes.
Now that it’s the fall season, I try to think a little outside of the box when it comes to pumpkin. Most of the time we bake with canned pumpkin puree. But I love using pumpkin in savory soups, pasta, and pizza too!
It’s certainly not just for baking!
Pumpkin Spaghetti O’s details
Step 1: find the pasta
For the 0-shaped pasta, I ordered anellini pasta on Amazon, as it’s not a shape I can easily find in my local stores.
That being said, you can change out the pasta shape for something similar in size. Orzo or tiny shells work wonderfully too!
Step 2: make the pumpkin sauce
This is just like a pumpkin Alfredo sauce. It’s very creamy and rich, but in the best way possible. I love to start with a brown butter. Then add sage and fresh thyme leaves, my go-to herbs throughout the fall.
Then add garlic and fresh chili flakes for even more flavor. The chili flakes are essential. They’re a nice spicy balance to the sweet pumpkin.
Mix in the pumpkin, then add a splash of cider. The cider adds a sweetness that balances out the richness in the sauce along with those chiles. You can omit the cider and use vegetable broth, but in my opinion, it makes the sauce a little more special.
Once you have the cider and pumpkin in the pan, simmer everything down to intensify the flavor, then add the pasta and water! The water will cook the pasta right down in the very same pan as the sauce. Super simple.
Step 3: finish the sauce
Now that the pasta is all cooked, add parmesan cheese, and creamy sweet gouda cheese or try pecorino! There’s no need to drain any of the pasta water.
I love to leave my spaghetti-os on the saucy side, so I pull the pasta off the heat and quickly serve with a sprinkling of sage and thyme for some added color. You can thin the sauce with milk or cream, as needed.
Every last bite is a delicious one. My whole family really loved this meal.
I know it may seem a little odd to use pumpkin in such a savory way, but trust me, it’s so good. The pumpkin lends a creaminess to the pasta that hits both sweetness and autumn flavors.
Beyond delicious! Please give this one a try, I know you’ll love it – and your family will have fun with it too!
Looking for other fall pasta recipes? Here are a few ideas:
Lemon Pepper Cajun Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
4 Cheese Roasted Garlic Alfredo Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
Brown Butter Pumpkin Tortellini Alla Vodka
Butternut Squash Pasta Carbonara with Rosemary Bacon
Browned Sage Butter Chicken Piccata with Mushroom Pasta
Slow Cooker Saucy Sunday Bolognese Pasta
Lastly, if you make these Pumpkin Spaghetti O’s be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Pumpkin Spaghetti O’s.
Servings: 4
Calories Per Serving: 348 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 1/4 cup fresh sage leaves, plus 2 teaspoon chopped sage
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- chili flakes
- 1 cup pumpkin purée
- 1/3 cup apple cider
- 2 cups Anellini or other small pasta
- 1 cup grated parmesan
- 1/2 cup shredded gouda
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme
- 1/2 cup milk/cream, if needed to thin the sauce
Instructions
- 2. Melt together the butter, sage leaves, and thyme in a large skillet set over medium heat. Cook until the butter is browning and the sage is crisp, 4 minutes. Remove the sage leaves from the butter.2. Reduce the heat to low, add the remaining chopped sage, the garlic, and a pinch of chili flakes. Cook 1 minute, then stir in the pumpkin purée and apple cider. Simmer 2-3 minutes, until thickened slightly. Pour over 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the pasta is al dente, about 12 minutes.3. Stir in the parmesan, gouda cheese, and nutmeg until the cheese is melted. Thin the sauce with milk/cream4. Serve immediately topped with sage. Enjoy!
This post was originally published on October 11, 2023
I didn’t have any of the ingredients so I used instant ramen instead. Here are the steps I took:
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a pot.
Add dry noodles into the pot, breaking up as soften.
Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat. Add 2 Tablespoons of ramen soup base, stir it well.
Transfer into the serving bowl. Add garnishes as desired.
Worked out super well and it was delicious!
I try so many of your recipes and love them! However, this one truly misses the mark. It clearly needs more seasoning… grandchildren would not touch it! Sad as it looked so good 😔
Hi Diane! I am so sorry about that! Is there anything I can do to help? xT
Thanks Phil! I appreciate all this input! xT
This was easy and delicious! I ended up using leftover roasted acorn squash in place of the pumpkin purée, and it turned out fantastic. Thanks for the great recipe as always! Also, can’t wait for your thanksgiving meal plan 🙂
It’s a good thing I decided to look at the reviews before starting to make this because I saw all the negative comments about far too much liquid, then I saw the ingredients had changed pretty significantly — 1/2 cup of milk or cream instead of 2 cups, and gouda instead of pecorino. Of course I only had pecorino, which I had bought just for this dinner (and which I don’t like, plus it didn’t really sound right in addition to the parmesan), so I had to scrap this dinner and find something else to make with what I had on hand. This is the second time very recently that the recipe has changed from the time I printed it to the time I went to make it a week later. While I really appreciate you adjusting recipes based on reviews, it would be nice if you published the “final final” version to start with! I’ll still make it next week, after I buy some gouda (which sounds much more appropriate for this recipe) and find something useful to do with the pecorino, or not.
This was really good! We added mushrooms and onions (because that’s our household) but everything was perfect! Thank you!!
Thank you so so much for trying out this recipe! So glad you enjoyed it! xT
I loved this! Very different. An adult take on a childhood favorite. I made as directed. This one is a keeper. I always thought I didn’t like sage, then I tried Tieghan’s chicken pot pie with puff pastry crust and fresh sage and it won me over!
Thank you so so much for trying out this recipe! So glad you enjoyed it! xT
Definitely start with 1 cup of milk and add more if needed. This was good, very mild flavor – kids would enjoy it. It was something different, but I don’t think I would make it again.
Thank you for the feedback Susan! xT
I love Tieghan and her recipes. But, this was not good. I was so excited for this dish tonight, and the feedback was: meh. Dig deeper to find something amazing and skip this one.
Hey Kristi! Thank you for letting me know! xT
This tasted fine (the apple cider note coming through was a little weird) but it wasn’t “saucy”—it was watery. This recipe calls for WAY too much liquid. Even after cooking for an extra 10 minutes and adding extra cheese and butter to try and thicken it, it was more like soup.
Hey Nance, I’m really sorry this didn’t turn out! Thanks for the feedback!! xT
Where do you find that pasta at?
Hi! I just get it online usually, it’s called Anellini! 🙂 xT
Followed the instructions to a tee. Tastes good but 2 cups of milk was WAY too much milk. Even after adding all the cheese (just added more parm instead of whatever cheese is listed here that I’m not even going to try and find) and letting it simmer a few mins, I have pasta soup. Maybe start with 3/4 a cup of milk and go from there.
Hey! I”m soo sorry about that! Thank you for letting me know! xT
A recipe with an ingredient you had to order online because your local stores don’t stock it. Just why?? That’s a deterrent. It would be far more sensible to create recipes with ingredients that are easily accessible.
I hear you, but it’s worth it! When Tieghan published her original spaghettios recipe, we ordered the 4 boxes of the O’s pasta. We’ve used all the boxes because we love that recipe and make it frequently 🙂 We just plan ahead when we’re out, and then we often have some on hand ready to go. I can’t wait to try this one next week.
This could be good with any pasta really, so what she chose shouldn’t be a deterrent…. Festive pasta like pumpkin pasta from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods would be fun!
Don’t you have anything better to do than post mean comments on someone’s website? It costs nothing to be nice 🙂
Flavoring is spot on. I used whole milk and mine came out very watery at first. I kept cooking until the consistency became a bit more thicker, but it still was watery. I spooned out the noodles and it’s delicious and I’m guessing my left overs will be even better once they soak up all of the liquid. Super yummy fall recipe!
Thank you so much! Hope you have a great fall season! 🙂 xT
I made this tonight. Even our 10 month old loved it! I added mushrooms and tossed in arugula at the end, used ground sage with the browned butter, and splashed in a little apple cider vinegar (we didn’t have apple cider on hand).
I will make it again adding walnuts and just a little pancetta.
Thank you so much! Hope you have a great fall season! 🙂 xT
Very excited to try this recipe! Is there a more easy to find substitute you recommend for pecorino cheese? Thank you!
Just use more parmesean. It is very similar but just not as salty as pecorino so you might need to season a bit more.
Hi there! You could use parmesan cheese! xT