This Thanksgiving, create a showstopper that will surely impress your family and friends! This is the ultimate mac & cheese dish combining the sweetness of pumpkin with the savory goodness of cheese and Italian sausage. It’s comfort food taken to the max!

Thanks to our friends Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord for creating this amazing recipe! For more mac & cheese recipes, check out their new cookbook,  Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese.

Pumpkin Stuffed with Fontina, Italian Sausage, and Macaroni Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 sugar pumpkin, or other sweet variety, about 5 pounds
• Sea Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 pound milk Italian pork sausage
• 4 oz elbow macaroni
• 5 oz Fontina, cut into 1/4 –inch cubes
• 2 oz Gruyere, cut into 1/4 –inch cubes
• 3 scallions, diced
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
• 1 cup heavy cream

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F/178°C. Cut a circle from the top of the pumpkin at a 45-degree angle, the way you would cut open a pumpkin to make a jack-o’-lantern, and set aside. Scoop out the seeds and strings as best you can. Generously salt and pepper the inside of the pumpkin, pop the top back on it, place it on a rimmed baking dish (since the pumpkin may leak or weep a bit), and bake for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. If the sausages are in their casings, remove the meat and discard the casings. Crumble the sausage meat into small chunks and cook until lightly browned. Remove the sausage from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. Discard the drippings, or save for gravy or what have you.

Also while the pumpkin bakes, cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain through a colander and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking process.

In a bowl, toss together the Fontina, Gruyère, sausage, pasta, scallions, and herbs. Once the pumpkin is done baking, take it out of the oven and fill it with the macaroni and cheese. Pour the cream over the filling. Place the top back on the pumpkin and bake for 1 hour, taking the top off for the last 15 minutes so the cheese on top of the filling can properly brown. If the top cream still seems a bit too wobbly and liquid, give it another 10 minutes in the oven. The cream may bubble over a bit, which is fine. If the pumpkin splits while baking, as occasionally happens, be thankful you set it in a rimmed baking dish and continue to bake as normal.

Allow the pumpkin to rest for 10 minutes before serving. Be careful moving the dish, as the pumpkin may be fragile. You can serve this dish two ways: Cut it into sections and serve them, or just scoop out the insides with scrapings of the pumpkin flesh for each serving. Either way is just dandy. Salt and pepper to taste.

Hello! We hope you made and enjoyed this recipe provided by Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord, Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company and Melt Macaroni! Please note that all photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words and link back to Pumpkin Stuffed with Fontina, Italian Sausage, and Macaroni Recipe on Food Literacy Center’s website. Thank you!