I made this recipe last weekend for a fun fall party at our friends Erika and Devin’s. Even though many of the fun fall events they had planned got cancelled due to rainy cold weather, it was still a really fun night, my sweater still smells like yummy camp fire! My favorite.

They made some meat-eater friendly dishes, so I decided to make and bring something gluten-free that I could eat, but that would also be great for any vegetarians or vegans. This pasta dish was really delicious warm, but it was equally as yummy when it cooled off a bit and was more of a pasta salad.

A little FYI, if you are a cheese-lover, this would be super delicious with some grated sharp Parmigiano-Reggiano and/or Romano cheeses. It’s been many months since I cooked with cheese at home, or really even thought about adding it to a dish I was making, but the thought definitely crossed my mind with this one.

Besides being full of so many of my very favorite foods, I think what I liked the most about this is the nice crunch from the toasted pumpkin seeds and all of the beautiful colors. You will notice in the recipe below I used 3 different kinds of peppers, we have an insane amount of peppers right now from our CSA so I was using up what we had a lot of, feel free to use whatever peppers you have on hand, even if it is just one of two of your standard bell pepper. It will be good either way.

On a side note, the weather is definitely quite icky here due to Hurricane Sandy (I am located in Buffalo, NY). Supposed to be the worse tonight and into tomorrow (I am writing this on Monday night). I hope all of my East Coast readers are staying safe and get through this storm without incident! I am anticipating lots of wind and rain over the next few days and I have my fingers crossed that we have no flooding (there is a river at the end of our dead end street). I made a huge pot of soup, my perfect comfort food for the super windy, cold and rainy times like this.

How is the weather near you? Are you experiencing Sandy’s wrath? Stay safe everyone!

[print_this]Pasta with Roasted Pumpkin, Peppers and White Beans – Gluten-free + Vegan
Serves 6-8

• 1 small pie pumpkin (about 2 lbs), peeled, seeded and diced into 1-inch cubes
• 1 teaspoon fresh marjoram, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, roughly chopped
• 6 tablespoons olive oil, split in half, plus possibly a bit more
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 red bell pepper, diced*
• 1 red carmen pepper, diced*
• 1 poblano pepper, diced*
• 1 can organic white beans, drained and rinsed
• 16 ounces organic gluten-free brown rice penne pasta
• salt and pepper to taste
• additional fresh marjoram and thyme
• 1/2 cup hulled pepitas, lightly toasted

*These were the peppers I had on hand from our CSA, we have a lot of peppers right now so I have been getting creative with adding them to recipes, feel free to use whatever pepper(s) you want.

Preheat your oven to 425ºF, toss the pumpkin cubes with 2 tablespoons olive oil, the fresh herbs and salt on a large baking sheet. Arrange in a single layer and roast for about 15-20 minutes, then take the pan out and add the diced peppers, white beans and garlic, continue baking another 15-20 minutes until the pumpkin and peppers are tender and browned.

While the pumpkin is roasting, prepare your pasta. Cook your pasta according to package directions and place in a large serving dish once cooked and drained. You can reserve a bit (approx 1/4 cup) of the cooking liquid if you want to add it to the pasta dish, which I like to do.

Once the pumpkin, white beans and peppers are cooked, add that to the serving bowl with the pasta. Add some fresh herbs, 2-3 tablespoons olive oil (pasta cooking liquid if you are using it) and half of the toasted pepitas, salt and pepper to taste. Toss to combine and taste, see if it needs any salt, pepper, or additional herbs. Serve topped with toasted pepitas.

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