Pumpkin and Sausage Manicotti with Sage Cream Sauce

I sat, trying to come up with a proper description for this dish for quite a few minutes.  It is so ridiculously good that I wanted to use all the cool culinary words to describe it. And all I could come up with is this is just ridiculously good.  I know, I'm to cool for school.  (Or at least I was to cool for English class) This has so many warm fall flavors going on.  Pure comfort food.  I blogged the sauce separately because it is so versatile.  It is a creamy, rich sauce that is super easy to make and can go on lots of other dishes.   For the Sage Cream Sauce click here.

Tips:  If you don't like Pumpkin, I have used Butternut squash with great success too.  If your vegetarian, this would be just as delicious without the sausage, just double the pumpkin.

I always put my manicotti filling in a gallon size Ziploc bag, then I cut the corner off one side and pipe the filling into the shells.  It makes so much less mess!

Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) package manicotti shells 

1 pound Sweet Italian sausage

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese  ( I have also used cottage cheese in a pinch)

1 large egg

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend

Sage Cream Sauce

Directions:

Heat oven to 350.  Cook and drain pasta according to package directions for al dente; set aside.

In a medium skillet cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Drain if desired. ( I don't, it adds great flavor.)

In a medium bowl, beat egg.  Stir in ricotta cheese, pumpkin, Parmesan cheese, pepper, 1/2 cup of the Italian cheese, and sausage.

Spread some of the Sage sauce in an ungreased 13 x 9- inch glass baking dish.  Fill pasta shells with sausage mixture.  Arrange stuffed shells over sauce in dish.  Pour remaining sauce evenly over shells.

Cover and bake for 30-35 minutes.  Uncover, top with remaining 1/2 cup Italian cheese and bake for 5-10 more minutes or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

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