One-Pot Creamy Pumpkin Bacon Pasta

Thanksgiving week is upon us! If you are still struggling with your menu and are looking for a non-traditional side dish, this One-Pot Creamy Pumpkin Bacon Pasta is where it’s at! And when I say this dish is creamy, I mean OMGGGG it’s creamy!

The beauty of a one-pot pasta dish is that when you cook the pasta right in the sauce, the pasta naturally helps tighten up the sauce, so you don’t need to add a bunch of heavy cream or cheese to make it really creamy. Check out this progression…the first photo is right after adding all the pasta to the just-starting-to-boil sauce. The second photo is after cooking the pasta for about 8 minutes – look how dreamy and creamy! The third photo is after adding in the spinach, bacon, and cheese. Yum!

Now, some of you might be worried that the pasta will get mushy if you cook it right in the hot sauce. Don’t be! I promise, as long as you only cook it to al dente before removing it from heat and adding in the spinach, bacon, and cheese, it won’t get mushy at all. If I’m serving this dish right away, I’ll take it closer to the 10 minute mark on top of the stove since it won’t be sitting around in the hot sauce for long. If I’m meal prepping it, I will take it off the heat at around 8 minutes of pasta cook time since I know I’ll be reheating it before eating.

Check out this grocery haul from Wegmans! And no, this isn’t sponsored. It’s no HEB or Central Market, but I still dig it and am pumped to have one so close to where I live 😉 One quick note on the cheese – it will melt more easily and be even creamier if you freshly grate or shave your own cheese. The pre-shredded/shaved stuff is typically coated in potato starch or something else to keep the cheese from clumping up. I still chose the little bag of shaved Parmesan and Fontina for the convenience of it, but you do you boo.

I also don’t have the ground chicken pictured here – if you’re making this as a side dish, I recommend just skipping the chicken. You could add another slice or two of bacon if you want more meat (and bacon flavor!) but the chicken is really meant for when you’re eating this as a meal.

I made this in my big 7 quart enameled cast iron casserole pot, but I transferred it over to my 3.5 quart Le Creuset casserole dish so you could see the pasta more easily in the photos. To get the true one-pot experience and easy cleanup, I recommend making this in a pot that’s at least 5 quarts for making this since you’ll need to stir the pasta frequently. Its just easier to do that in a bigger pot so you’re not spilling any goodies on the stove.

Here are some items I used to make this recipe a success! Note: these are Amazon Affiliate links.

If you’re meal prepping this dish, I recommend the glass meal prep container linked above. If you have enough to freeze some portions, I recommend using the Souper Cubes 2-cup containers for easy freezing and easy freezer storage. You can bake right in the trays, but Souper Cubes also just came out with this cute stoneware to up your serving game after you pull a cube out of the freezer!

Recipe